Intentional forgetting might be more effortful than remembering: An ERP study of item-method directed forgetting

Consistent with their emphasis on emotional goals, older adults often exhibit a positivity bias in attention and memory relative to their young counterparts (i.e., a positivity effect). The current study sought to determine how this age-related positivity effect would impact intentional forgetting of emotional words, a process critical to efficient operation of memory. Using an item-based directed forgetting task, 36 young and 36 older adults studied a series of arousal-equivalent words that varied in valence (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral). Each word was followed by a cue to either remember or forget the word. A subsequent “tagging” recognition task required classification of items as to-be-remembered (TBR), to-be-forgotten (TBF), or new as a measure of directed forgetting and source attribution in participants' memory. Neither young nor older adults' intentional forgetting was affected by the valence of words. A goal-consistent valence effect did, however, emerge in older adults' source attribution performance. Specifically, older adults assigned more TBR-cues to positive words and more TBF-cues to negative words. Results are discussed in light of existing literature on emotion and directed forgetting as well as the socioemotional selectivity theory underlying the age-related positivity effect.

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Positivity effect in source attributions of arousal-matched emotional and non-emotional words during item-based directed forgetting

10.32920/ryerson.14669085 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sara N. Gallant ◽

Lixia Yang

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Directed Forgetting ◽

Attention And Memory ◽

Source Attribution ◽

Efficient Operation ◽

Emotional Words ◽

Positivity Effect ◽

Intentional Forgetting ◽

Age Related

Consistent with their emphasis on emotional goals, older adults often exhibit a positivity bias in attention and memory relative to their young counterparts (i.e., a positivity effect). The current study sought to determine how this age-related positivity effect would impact intentional forgetting of emotional words, a process critical to efficient operation of memory. Using an item-based directed forgetting task, 36 young and 36 older adults studied a series of arousal-equivalent words that varied in valence (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral). Each word was followed by a cue to either remember or forget the word. A subsequent “tagging” recognition task required classification of items as to-be-remembered (TBR), to-be-forgotten (TBF), or new as a measure of directed forgetting and source attribution in participants' memory. Neither young nor older adults' intentional forgetting was affected by the valence of words. A goal-consistent valence effect did, however, emerge in older adults' source attribution performance. Specifically, older adults assigned more TBR-cues to positive words and more TBF-cues to negative words. Results are discussed in light of existing literature on emotion and directed forgetting as well as the socioemotional selectivity theory underlying the age-related positivity effect.

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Effects of aging and emotional valence on item directed forgetting and source attributions

10.32920/ryerson.14662080 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sara N. Gallant

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Directed Forgetting ◽

Detection Task ◽

Probe Detection ◽

Intentional Forgetting ◽

Effects Of Aging ◽

Emotional Effects

Two experiments investigated the effects of aging and emotion on intentional forgetting. Experiment 1 compared 36 young (aged 18-28, M = 20.22, SD = 3.12) and 36 older adults (aged 65-85, M = 71.53, SD = 5.44) on item directed forgetting and source attributions (i.e., assigning a 'remember', 'forget', or 'new' tag during recognition) of positive, negative, and neutral words. Older adults' directed forgetting was reduced for positive words and their source attributions were differentially affected by emotion. Emotion had no effect on young adults' performance. Experiment 2 examined the role of attention in older adults' intentional forgetting. Thirty-six older adults (aged 65-91, M = 73.92, SD = 7.55) completed an emotional item directed forgetting task that incorporated a probe-detection task during encoding to assess the allocation of attention across valence conditions. Older adults again showed reduced directed forgetting for positive words and emotional effects in source attributions; however, results from the probe-detection task indicated the older adults' attention may not have been influenced by the emotional tone of stimuli during encoding.

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Separable neural mechanisms support intentional forgetting and thought substitution

10.1101/2020.10.29.360511 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ryan J. Hubbard ◽

Lili Sahakyan

Keyword(s):

Directed Forgetting ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Intentional Forgetting ◽

Neural Processes ◽

Oscillatory Power ◽

Successful Retrieval ◽

Open Question ◽

Direct Suppression

AbstractPsychological and neuroscientific experiments have established that people can intentionally forget information via different strategies: direct suppression and thought substitution. However, few studies have directly compared the effectiveness of these strategies in forgetting specific items, and it remains an open question if the neural mechanisms supporting these strategies differ. Here, we developed a novel item-method directed forgetting paradigm with Remember, Forget, and Imagine cues, and recorded EEG to directly compare these strategies. Behaviorally, Forget and Imagine cues produced similar forgetting compared to Remember cues, but through separable neural processes; Forget cues elicited frontal oscillatory power changes that were predictive of future forgetting, whereas item-cue representational similarity was predictive of later accuracy for Imagine cues. These results suggest that both strategies can lead to intentional forgetting, but directed forgetting may rely on frontally-mediated suppression, while thought substitution may lead to contextual shifting, impairing successful retrieval.

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The Need for Metaforgetting

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199336746.013.26 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Lili Sahakyan ◽

Nathaniel L. Foster

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Judgments Of Learning ◽

Directed Forgetting ◽

Monitoring And Control ◽

Intentional Forgetting ◽

List Method ◽

Different Dimensions ◽

Memory Monitoring ◽

And Control

Theories of metamemory are primarily concerned with mechanisms that improve memory; they do not account for processes that reduce accessibility of unwanted information, as in intentional forgetting. The chapter proposes that introducing separate terms like metaremembering and metaforgetting highlights the distinction between remembering and forgetting as different dimensions of memory. It reviews empirical evidence from directed forgetting studies. List-method directed forgetting depends on engaging active forgetting strategies, indicating the importance of control in successful intentional forgetting. The decision to engage in forgetting strategies, in turn, is affected by memory monitoring as evidenced through preexisting confidence about one’s own memory ability, as well as judgments of learning solicited during the task. In item-method directed forgetting, participants control rehearsal by selectively retrieving earlier items believed to be more memorable, even when such beliefs are illusory. The chapter discusses the role of metacognitive monitoring and control in these active forms of forgetting.

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Tracking selective rehearsal and active inhibition of memory traces in directed forgetting

10.1101/864819 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Marie-Christin Fellner ◽

Gerd T. Waldhauser ◽

Nikolai Axmacher

Keyword(s):

Time Window ◽

Early Time ◽

Directed Forgetting ◽

Intentional Control ◽

Active Inhibition ◽

Intentional Forgetting ◽

Memory Traces ◽

Neural Inhibition ◽

Selective Rehearsal ◽

Open Question

SummarySelectively remembering or forgetting newly encountered information is essential for goal-directed behavior. It is still an open question, however, whether intentional forgetting is an active process based on the inhibition of unwanted memory traces or whether it occurs passively through reduced recruitment of selective rehearsal [1,2]. Here we show that intentional control of memory encoding relies on both, enhanced active inhibition and decreased selective rehearsal, and that these two processes can be separated in time and space. We applied representational similarity analysis (RSA [3]) and timefrequency analysis to EEG data during an item-method directed forgetting experiment [4]. We identified neural signatures of both the intentional suppression and the voluntary upregulation of item-specific representations. Successful active forgetting was associated with a downregulation of item-specific representations in an early time window, 500ms after the instruction. This process was initiated by an increase in oscillatory alpha (8-13 Hz) power, a well-established signature of neural inhibition [5,6], in occipital brain areas. During a later time window, 1500ms after the cue, intentional forgetting was associated with reduced employment of active rehearsal processes, as reflected by an attenuated upregulation of item-specific representations as compared to intentionally encoded items. Our data show that active inhibition and selective rehearsal are two separate mechanisms whose consecutive employment allows for a voluntary control of memory formation.

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