Intentions to forget and the importance of interference: further tests of the strategic retrieval account of recent list-method directed forgetting

Abstract

Several list-method directed forgetting studies found that people can forget the most recent of two lists when instructed to, a phenomenon termed recent directed forgetting. The present paper tested predictions from [Gilbert, L. T., Delaney, P. F., & Racsmány, M. (2023). People sometimes remember to forget: Strategic retrieval from the list before last enables directed forgetting of the most recent information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 49(6), 900-925. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001178] strategic retrieval account of recent directed forgetting, which proposes that people try to forget the most recent list by retrieving earlier-studied items, creating interference and new learning necessary to forget. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed the prediction that without intentions to forget, instructions to retrieve List 1 promote forgetting of List 2. Experiments 3 and 4 tested anticipated boundary conditions of strategic retrieval. First, recognition testing eliminated the forgetting effect (Experiment 3). Second, categorised lists were expected to allow forgetting only when both lists were drawn from the same semantic category, as opposed to unrelated categories (Experiment 4). Contrary to our prediction, categorised lists showed significant forgetting under both conditions, despite reducing interference. The results suggest a dissociation between changing context via retrieval of earlier context and the process of "setting" context by studying new items after a context change.

Keywords: Directed forgetting; interference; retrieval-induced forgetting; strategic retrieval; testing effect.