BRIEF REPORT Forgetting “murder” is not harder than forgetting “circle”: Listwise-directed forgetting of emotional words

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Wessel, Ineke Merckelbach, Harald
Copyright Year	2006
Abstract	The list-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm has attracted the attention of clinical psychologists because it is widely believed that a retrieval inhibition mechanism underlies its effects. Thus, the idea is that people are capable of intentionally forgetting negative emotional material. On the other hand, there are reasons to believe that negative stimuli are relatively resistant to forgetting. The present experiment compared listwise DF of emotional and neutral words in healthy college students. A modified procedure (i.e., a simulated computer crash) showed a reliable DF-effect in that list 1 recall was larger under remember than forget instructions whereas the reverse was true for list 2 recall. Emotionality did not modulate the magnitude of this effect. Thus, negative emotional material is not resistant to forgetting. Although overall, the present findings are in line with a retrieval inhibition interpretation (i.e., decreased access to list 1 material), attentional focusing during list 2 learning may provide a sufficient explanation.
Starting Page	129
Ending Page	137
Page Count	9
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1080/02699930500260195
Volume Number	20
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/portal/files/1264878/guid-51a69e98-df3a-4b09-af06-d4d62c295e44-ASSET1.0.pdf
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930500260195
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Report