Forgetting cues are ineffective in promoting forgetting in the item-method directed forgetting paradigm

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of forgetting cues in an item-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm. A modified no-cue (NC) condition, in which participants could not adopt intentional forgetting strategy, was added to an item-method DF paradigm. Memory retention was compared between NC condition and to-be-forgotten (TBF) condition. The results revealed that the recognition reaction times (RTs) were shorter for the remembered TBF (TBF-R) words than for the remembered NC (NC-R) words, and were longer for the forgotten TBF words relative to the forgotten NC words, indicating that participants might be more familiar with the TBF words than the NC words. Event-related potential results showed that both LPC activity and frontal old/new effect were enhanced for TBF-R words relative to the NC-R words. These results might indicate that participants were more familiar with TBF words than NC words. This study further supports the view that forgetting cues may not in fact promote forgetting in the item-method DF paradigm.