Long-Term Recognition and Recall Following Directed Forgetting

Two experiments investigated long-term retention subsequent to directed forgetting. In Experiment 1, both recognition and cued recall were better for categories given remember (R) instructions than for categories given forget (F) instructions. A constant advantage of R items over F items persisted from an immediate test to a 1-wk delayed test. In Experiment 2, recognition of R items exceeded that of F items at retention intervals of 1 and 2 wk, the superiority of R items over F items again being constant across retention intervals. Presence or absence of study-instruction cues at the time of test in Experiment 2 did not differentially affect performance. An explanation is offered relating the directed forgetting effect to selective rehearsal during initial processing of the items and to the presence of instruction information stored with the individual items.