Many people feel that the ability to remember information is positive, like being able to recall facts or our life events. Alternatively, many people consider forgetting a negative process, and feel frustrated when we forget someone's name or what items we need at the supermarket. However, forgetting traumatic life events or what items you needed last time you went to the grocery store can be helpful. Furthermore, having control over what we forget, or the ability to engage in Directed Forgetting, can be even more useful. Although many researchers have previously demonstrated the Directed Forgetting (DF) effect, Avery Rizio '09 (Walpole, Mass.) is working with Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Mark Oakes to further examine DF, investigating the processes that underlie this phenomenon.
To study DF in the lab, participants are instructed to memorize two word lists. After participants view the first list of words, half of them are told to forget the first set (forget group), and the other half do not receive forget instructions (remember group). All participants are then told to memorize the second list of words. Following the presentation of both lists, participants are asked to recall as many words as they can from both lists, regardless of the previous instructions they received. Researchers typically find the DF effect, or that participants in the forget group recall fewer first list words than those in the remember group.
Presently, most researchers believe that the DF effect is caused by a process of "retrieval inhibition". According to retrieval inhibition proponents, when people are instructed to forget information, their brains block access to the information, inhibiting later retrieval. A second, less documented theory, the theory of "differential encoding", purports that DF impairs memory because it interrupts how people encode, or learn, information. Rizio explains that participants rehearse the words in their heads as they memorize the first list. When participants are told to forget these first list words (but still memorize the second list), they stop rehearsing the first list and concentrate on memorizing the second. Therefore, memory differences between groups occur because the forget group encodes the second list differently from the first, while the remember group encodes both lists the same. Rizio's research attempts to illustrate that differential encoding also plays a role in DF.
Rizio hypothesizes that examining participants' memory for detail-oriented information would support the process of differential encoding. She argues that DF effects should be pronounced for detail-oriented information, such that participants in the remember group should be better able to identify the correct size, case, and font of the words they had previously memorized than those in the forget group. So far, her findings provide support for this prediction.
Rizio has been conducting Directed Forgetting research with Professor Oakes since the fall of 2006. This summer, she is finalizing the computer program that presents the experimental stimuli and running participants. As a psychology major (anthropology minor), she plans to continue working on this project for her senior thesis and has applied to present a poster of her research at the Psychonomics conference held in Chicago this November.
Rizio claims that participating in the STEP program the summer before her freshman year incited her interest in research. She thoroughly enjoyed conducting Neuroscience research with Professor Weldon, and became even more interested in Cognitive Psychology once she began her research with Professor Oakes. Outside the lab, Rizio volunteers at Spring Farm Cares animal shelter and Root Farm, participates in the X-Viper Hour Radio Show, and is on the HAVOC executive board. In addition, she will serve as the vice president of Psi Chi and as an Honor Court representative next year.
-- by Stephanie Anglin '10
To study DF in the lab, participants are instructed to memorize two word lists. After participants view the first list of words, half of them are told to forget the first set (forget group), and the other half do not receive forget instructions (remember group). All participants are then told to memorize the second list of words. Following the presentation of both lists, participants are asked to recall as many words as they can from both lists, regardless of the previous instructions they received. Researchers typically find the DF effect, or that participants in the forget group recall fewer first list words than those in the remember group.
Presently, most researchers believe that the DF effect is caused by a process of "retrieval inhibition". According to retrieval inhibition proponents, when people are instructed to forget information, their brains block access to the information, inhibiting later retrieval. A second, less documented theory, the theory of "differential encoding", purports that DF impairs memory because it interrupts how people encode, or learn, information. Rizio explains that participants rehearse the words in their heads as they memorize the first list. When participants are told to forget these first list words (but still memorize the second list), they stop rehearsing the first list and concentrate on memorizing the second. Therefore, memory differences between groups occur because the forget group encodes the second list differently from the first, while the remember group encodes both lists the same. Rizio's research attempts to illustrate that differential encoding also plays a role in DF.
Rizio hypothesizes that examining participants' memory for detail-oriented information would support the process of differential encoding. She argues that DF effects should be pronounced for detail-oriented information, such that participants in the remember group should be better able to identify the correct size, case, and font of the words they had previously memorized than those in the forget group. So far, her findings provide support for this prediction.
Rizio has been conducting Directed Forgetting research with Professor Oakes since the fall of 2006. This summer, she is finalizing the computer program that presents the experimental stimuli and running participants. As a psychology major (anthropology minor), she plans to continue working on this project for her senior thesis and has applied to present a poster of her research at the Psychonomics conference held in Chicago this November.
Rizio claims that participating in the STEP program the summer before her freshman year incited her interest in research. She thoroughly enjoyed conducting Neuroscience research with Professor Weldon, and became even more interested in Cognitive Psychology once she began her research with Professor Oakes. Outside the lab, Rizio volunteers at Spring Farm Cares animal shelter and Root Farm, participates in the X-Viper Hour Radio Show, and is on the HAVOC executive board. In addition, she will serve as the vice president of Psi Chi and as an Honor Court representative next year.
-- by Stephanie Anglin '10
