Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting

Abstract

Contextual information plays a critical role in directed forgetting (DF) of lists of items, whereas DF of individual items has been primarily associated with item-level processing. This study was designed to investigate whether context processing also contributes to the forgetting of individual items. Participants first viewed a series of words, with task-irrelevant scene images (used as “context tags”) interspersed between them. Later, these words reappeared without the scenes and were followed by an instruction to remember or forget that word. Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed that the reactivation of context information associated with the studied words (i.e., scene-related activity) was greater whereas the item-related information diminished after a forget instruction compared to a remember instruction. Critically, we found the magnitude of the separation between item information and context information predicted successful forgetting. These results suggest that the unbinding of an item from its context may support the intention to forget, and more generally they establish that contextual processing indeed contributes to item-method DF.

Can intentional forgetting reduce the cross-race effect in memory?

“…The AUC measure accounts for both the hit rates and false-alarm rates across the confidence levels and it is an established measure of memory sensitivity (e.g., Macmillan & Creelman, 2005 ; Yonelinas & Parks, 2007 ). It is also an established measure in item-method DF studies (e.g., Chiu et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2019 ). AUC was computed for each participant in each condition, and then AUC across participants was tested with repeated-measures ANOVA, using memory Instruction (R vs. F) and Face Type (other-race vs. own -race) as within-subject factors.…”

Identifying stimulus-driven neural activity patterns in multi-patient intracranial recordings

“…Once these mappings are learned, they may be applied to new neural patterns to estimate the stimulus or "thoughts" associated with those neural patterns. This allows researchers to estimate the cognitive dynamics that occur during neuroimaging [31,51,93,118,119]. Some stimuli, such as words, images, pure tones, etc., are perceptually static.…”

Let the Past Rest: The Influence of Effortful Control on Directed Forgetting of Explicit and Implicit Memories

“…The level of directed forgetting was estimated according to the effect of instructions on subjects' performances in the final memory test, and there are two methods to evaluate it: the item method and the list method. In the item method, learning materials are presented one by one, each followed by a cue of remembering and forgetting, while in the list method, the instruction is given after the presenting of an entire list of learning materials [3]. In some studies, the item method was tied to attentional control and might include inhibitory mechanisms.…”