Directed forgetting of a single item.

Full Abstract

In two experiments, we investigated directed forgetting of a single item. We presented participants with two phone numbers to remember and instructed half of the participants to forget the first phone number. The first number was either learned on a single trial (Experiment 1) or on three trials (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, there was evidence of directed forgetting as a result of differential encoding; the forget instruction affected recall and recognition for both phone numbers. In Experiment 2, the evidence favored differential rehearsal because the forget instruction affected recall but not recognition. These results indicate that instructions to forget can affect memory of single items.

Author information

Author/s: Gottlob, Lawrence R (LR); Golding, Jonathan M (JM); Hauselt, William J (WJ);

Affiliation: University of Kentucky, USA. gottlob(-atsign-)uky.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of general psychology (J Gen Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jan; vol 133 (issue 1) : pp 67-80

Dates: Created 2006/02/14; Completed 2006/04/25;

PMID: 16475669, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

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