Chelsea K. Quinlan

Directed Forgetting: Comparing Pictures and Words

The authors investigated directed forgetting as a function of the stimulus type (picture, word) presented at study and test. In an item-method directed forgetting task, study items were presented 1 at a time, each followed with equal probability by an instruction to remember or forget. Participants exhibited greater yes-no recognition of remember than forget items for each of the 4 study-test conditions (picture-picture, picture-word, word-word, word-picture). However, this difference was significantly smaller when pictures were studied than when words were studied. This finding demonstrates that the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect can be reduced by high item memorability, such as when the picture superiority effect is operating. This suggests caution in using pictures at study when the goal of an experiment is to examine potential group differences in the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect.

Enhancing the production effect in memory

The production effect is the finding that subsequent memory is better for words that are produced than for words that are not produced. Whereas the current literature demonstrates that reading aloud is the most effective form of production, the distinctiveness account used to explain the production effect predicts that there is nothing special about reading aloud per se: Other forms of vocal production that include an additional distinct element should produce even greater subsequent memory benefits than reading aloud. To test this, we presented participants with study words that they were instructed to read aloud loudly, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 1); sing, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 2); and sing, read aloud loudly, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 3). We observed that both reading items aloud loudly (Experiments 1 and 3) and singing items (Experiments 2 and 3) at study resulted in greater subsequent recognition than reading items aloud in a normal voice; singing had a larger memory benefit than reading aloud loudly (Experiment 3). Our findings support the distinctiveness hypothesis by demonstrating that there are other forms of production, such as singing and reading aloud loudly that have a more pronounced effect on memory than reading aloud.

Interplay of the production and picture superiority effects: a signal detection analysis.

Three experiments explored the interaction between the production effect (greater memory for produced compared to non-produced study items) and the picture superiority effect (greater memory for pictures compared to words). Pictures and words were presented in a blocked (E1) or mixed (E2, E3) design, each accompanied by an instruction to silently name (non-produced condition) or quietly mouth (produced condition) the corresponding referent. Memory was then tested for all study items as well as an equal number of foil items using a speeded (E1, E2) or self-paced (E3) yes-no recognition task. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 all revealed a small but reliable production×stimulus interaction. Production was also found to result in a liberal shift in response bias that could result in the overestimation of the production effect when measured using hits instead of sensitivity. Together our findings suggest that the application of multiple distinctive processes at study produces an especially discriminative memory trace at test, more so than the summation of each process individually.

An investigation of the link between gambling motives and social context of gambling in young adults

The current study examined the relationship between gambling motives and gambling in various social contexts using both retrospective and real-time assessment of gambling social context. Ninety-five young adults (79 males, 16 females; aged 19–24 years) who reported gambling at least 4 times in the past month participated. Scores on the Gambling Motives Questionnaire (GMQ; Stewart & Zack, 2008) were used as a measure of gambling motives (Enhancement, Social, Coping). Data on the social context of gambling (alone, with family, with friends, with strangers) were derived retrospectively from the Gambling Timeline Follow-Back (G-TLFB; Weinstock, Whelan, & Meyers, 2004) as well as in real time using experience sampling (ES) methods (Conner Christensen, Feldman Barrett, Bliss-Moreau, Lebo, & Kaschub, 2003). For both the G-TLFB and ES data, we conducted a series of multivariate regression analyses with the block of gambling motives predicting gambling behaviour in each social context. Across the two assessment methods, coping gambling motives positively predicted gambling alone, whereas social gambling motives negatively predicted gambling alone and positively predicted gambling with friends. These findings suggest that individuals who gamble for particular motives are more likely to do so in specific social contexts.

The impact of attention style on directed forgetting among high anxiety sensitive individuals

Results of research investigating the link between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and memory biases toward threat have been inconsistent. There may be subgroups of high AS individuals who differ in their preferred mode of attending to threat-related information, thereby impacting memory. The impact of individual attention style on intentional forgetting of words varying in emotional valence was examined among individuals with varying levels of AS. By incorporating an inhibition of return (IOR) task (to yield a proxy of attentional allocation) within the study phase of the item-method directed forgetting paradigm, we categorized high, moderate, and low AS individuals according to their attention style in response to threat stimuli: ‘threat attenders’ (small IOR effect) and ‘threat avoiders’ (large IOR effect). Among high AS individuals only, ‘threat avoiders’ showed greater intentional forgetting of threat-related words than ‘threat attenders’. High AS ‘threat avoiders’ also had higher levels of anxiety-related psychopathology (AS and health anxiety) than high AS ‘threat attenders’.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception: Intentional forgetting of emotional faces.

The current study used the item-method directed forgetting paradigm to determine whether there are limits on the ability to intentionally forget angry faces. During the study phase, faces were presented, 1 at a time, each followed by an instruction to remember or forget. Following the presentation of all faces, participants performed a yes-no recognition test. In 2 experiments that varied only the presentation duration of the face (500 ms vs. 1,000 ms), we observed an overall directed forgetting effect, with greater recognition of faces studied with remember rather than forget instructions; the magnitude of this effect did not vary with emotional expression. We interpret these results in light of the proposal that priority processing of angry faces benefits the speed of forming an enduring long-term memory trace rather than increasing the strength of that trace.

Decomposing item-method directed forgetting of emotional pictures: Equivalent costs and no benefits

Using an item-method directed forgetting task, we presented negative, neutral, and positive photographic pictures, one at a time, each followed by an instruction to remember or forget. We determined that the directed forgetting effect, defined as better subsequent recognition of to-be-remembered (TBR) items than to-be-forgotten (TBF) items, was equivalent across negative, neutral, and positive pictures. To disentangle the underlying costs (i.e., decrease in memory for TBF items) and benefits (i.e., increase in memory for TBR items), we compared recognition memory performance in the directed forgetting task to that of a novel within-subjects remember-all control condition (Experiment 1) and to a between-subjects remember-all control group (Experiment 2). We observed costs without benefits across all three emotions—negative, neutral, and positive—in both experiments. These results demonstrate that equivalent directed forgetting effects for emotional stimuli are not attributable to different underlying component processes. Instead, our results suggest that selection for encoding is accomplished in similar ways, regardless of emotional content.