EXPRESS: Forgetting by any Other Name: The Effect of Instruction Framing on Item-Method Directed Forgetting

In a typical item-method directed forgetting task, study words are presented one at a time, each followed by an instruction to Remember or Forget. Subsequent recognition shows a directed forgetting effect, with better recognition of to-be-remembered words than to-be-forgotten words. This study determined whether recognition depends only on the intention to remember or forget or also on the words used to frame the trial-by-trial instructions or task. In Experiments 1 and 3 participants were instructed, trial-by-trial, to Remember and Forget, Remember and Don’t Remember, Don’t Forget and Forget, or were told that some words were Important and that others were Not Important. There was no compelling evidence that the directed forgetting effect was altered by the specific words used as these trial-by-trial instructions. However, in Experiment 2, a smaller directed forgetting effect occurred when the task was framed as requiring participants to Remember unless instructed otherwise, compared to when it was framed as requiring participants to Forget unless instructed otherwise. These findings emphasize the freedom that researchers have for deciding how to frame trial-by-trial instructions and the caution they must use in deciding how to frame task itself.