Directed Forgetting of Individual Words in Free Recall'

This article reports an experiment designed to clarify the storage, rehearsal, and retrieval mechanisms that underlie the ability of 5s to recall to-beremembered words (R words) without intruding to-be-forgotten words (F words). The 5s were presented seven 24-word lists, each consisting of a random mixture of 12 R words and 12 F words; the cues to remember or forget were presented subsequent to each word in turn. Six of the lists were followed by either an immediate test of R-word recall or a distractor activity, and one of the lists was followed by a prearranged signal to 5s to recall both R words and F words from that list. In general, the results implicate rehearsal and organizational processes at input rather than suppression or selective retrieval processes during output as the mechanisms by which 5s achieve the simultaneous recall and nonrecall of R words and F words, respectively.