Cognitive load hypothesis of item-method directed forgetting

Abstract

This study examined the effect of the processing demands of to-be-remembered (TBR) words on item-method directed forgetting. Experiment 1 found that a standard memory group remembered fewer to-be-forgotten (TBF) words than a naming group, in which participants simply named the TBR words during the study phase, even though both groups were equally instructed to forget the TBF words. Experiment 2 manipulated the number of TBR words in the study list, keeping the number of TBF words constant, and found that TBF word forgetting was more difficult in the few TBR words condition than the more TBR words condition. The same pattern was found in the result of Experiment 3 when a cued recall test, instead of a free recall test, was used. In all the experiments, participants were asked to recall the TBF words before the TBR words. These findings are consistent with the cognitive load hypothesis that it is easier to forget when there are fewer cognitive resources available during encoding.

Keywords:

• Selective rehearsal
• Cognitive resources
• Intentionally forgetting
• Output interference

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Huang-Mou Lee and Yung-chi Hsu for assistance in administering the experiments and anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by Research Grant NSC 99-2410-H-194-039 from the National Science Council of the Republic of China.