List-method directed forgetting: the forget cue improves both encoding and retrieval of postcue Information

In list-method directed forgetting, people are cued to forget a previously studied item list and to learn a new list instead. Such cuing typically leads to forgetting of the first list and to memory enhancement of the second, referred to as List 1 forgetting and List 2 enhancement. In the present study, two experiments are reported that examined influences of items’ serial learning position in a list and the two lists’ output order on list-method directed forgetting. The results show that list output order influences List 2 enhancement but not List 1 forgetting. The enhancement was higher when List 2 was recalled first than when List 1 was recalled first, and, in both cases, was higher for early List 2 items than for middle and late List 2 items. In contrast, the forgetting was equally present for all List 1 items and did not depend on the two lists’ output order. The findings suggest that two separate factors can contribute to List 2 enhancement, one (encoding) factor that is restricted to early List 2 items and does not depend on list output order, and another (retrieval) factor that pertains to all List 2 items and varies with the two lists’ output order. A new 2-mechanism account of directed forgetting is suggested that reconciles previous (encoding or retrieval) views on List 2 enhancement