Skip to main content
Download PDF

Positive moods can eliminate intentional forgetting

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review volume 16, pages 93–98 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

People can intentionally forget previously studied information if, after study, a forget cue and new material to be encoded are provided. We examined how the affective state people experience during encoding of the new material modulates such directed forgetting. Positive, negative, and neutral moods were induced immediately before the new material was studied. The study materials themselves were neutral. The results showed sustained forgetting of the previously studied materials in negative moods but an elimination of the forgetting in positive moods. These findings agree with the effects of mood found for other cognitive tasks. They suggest that in positive moods, associative networks are activated, which leads to reactivation of List-1 items, and thus to elimination of the directed forgetting effects. These results contrast with recent reports on the role of emotional content in directed forgetting, which have described equivalent effects for neutral and emotional materials. Together, our findings suggest that directed forgetting is mainly affected by mood, and hardly at all by emotional content.

References

  • Barnier, A. J., Conway, M. A., Mayoh, L., Speyer, J., Avizmil, O., & Harris, C. B. (2007). Directed forgetting of recently recalled autobiographical memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 301–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basden, B. H., Basden, D. R., & Wright, M. J. (2003). Part-list reexposure and release of retrieval inhibition. Consciousness & Cognition, 12, 354–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäuml, K.-H. (2008). Inhibitory processes. In J. H. Byrne (Series Ed.) & H. L. Roediger III (Vol. Ed.), Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference. Vol. 2: Cognitive psychology of memory (pp. 195–220). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bäuml, K.-H., Hanslmayr, S., Pastötter, B., & Klimesch, W. (2008). Oscillatory correlates of intentional updating in episodic memory. NeuroImage, 41, 596–604.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäuml, K.-H., & Kuhbandner, C. (2007). Remembering can cause forgetting-but not in negative moods. Psychological Science, 18, 111–115.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (1996). Continuing influences of to-beforgotten information. Consciousness & Cognition, 5, 176–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjork, R. A. (1970). Positive forgetting: The noninterference of items intentionally forgotten. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 9, 255–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolte, A., Goschke, T., & Kuhl, J. (2003). Emotion and intuition: Effects of positive and negative mood on implicit judgments of semantic coherence. Psychological Science, 14, 416–421.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, M. M., Cuthbert, B. N., & Lang, P. J. (1996). Picture media and emotion: Effects of a sustained affective content. Psychophysiology, 33, 662–670.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clore, G. L., & Huntsinger, J. R. (2007). How emotions inform judgment and regulate thought. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 393–399.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conway, M. A., Harries, K., Noyes, J., Racsma’ny, M., & Frankish, C. R. (2000). The disruption and dissolution of directed forgetting: Inhibitory control of memory. Journal of Memory & Language, 43, 409–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corson, Y., & Verrier, N. (2007). Emotions and false memories: Valence or arousal? Psychological Science, 18, 208–211.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, P. F., & Sahakyan, L. (2007). Unexpected costs of high working memory capacity following directed forgetting and contextual change manipulations. Memory & Cognition, 35, 1074–1082.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duyck, W., Desmet, T., Verbeke, L. P. C., & Brysbaert, M. (2004). WordGen: A tool for word selection and nonword generation in Dutch, English, German, and French. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 488–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eich, E., & Metcalfe, J. (1989). Mood dependent memory for internal versus external events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 15, 443–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, A. S., & Maddock, R. J. (2001). Time course of the subjective emotional response to aversive pictures: Relevance to fMRI studies. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 108, 39–48.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasper, K., & Clore, G. L. (2002). Attending to the big picture: Mood and global versus local processing of visual information. Psychological Science, 13, 34–40.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geiselman, R. E., Bjork, R. A., & Fishman, D. L. (1983). Disrupted retrieval in directed forgetting: A link with posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 112, 58–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hänze, M., & Hesse, F. W. (1993). Emotional influences on semantic priming. Cognition & Emotion, 7, 195–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., Johnson, M. M. S., Mertz, E., & Robinson, G. F. (1985). The influence of positive affect on the unusualness of word associations. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 48, 1413–1426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1999). International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Technical manual and affective ratings. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, Center for Research in Psychophysiology.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C. M. (1998). Directed forgetting. In J. M. Golding & C. M. MacLeod (Eds.), Intentional forgetting: Interdisciplinary approaches (pp. 1–57). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNally, R. J., Clancy, S. A., Barrett, H. M., & Parker, H. A. (2004). Inhibiting retrieval of trauma cues in adults reporting histories of childhood sexual abuse. Cognition & Emotion, 18, 479–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, R. L. C., & Phillips, L. H. (2007). The psychological, neurochemical and functional neuroanatomical mediators of the effects of positive and negative mood on executive functions. Neuropsychologia, 45, 617–629.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moulds, M. L., & Bryant, R. A. (2005). An investigation of retrieval inhibition in acute stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18, 233–236.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, J. A., Weiss, A., & Mendelsohn, G. A. (1989). Affect Grid: A single-item scale of pleasure and arousal. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 57, 493–502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahakyan, L., & Delaney, P. F. (2003). Can encoding differences explain the benefits of directed forgetting in the list method paradigm? Journal of Memory & Language, 48, 195–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahakyan, L., & Goodmon, L. B. (2007). The influence of directional associations on directed forgetting and interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 33, 1035–1049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahakyan, L., & Kelley, C. M. (2002). A contextual change account of the directed forgetting effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 1064–1072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., Bless, H., & Bohner, G. (1991). Mood and persuasion: Affective states influence the processing of persuasive communications. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 24, pp. 161–199). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. L. (2005). With sadness comes accuracy; with happiness, false memory: Mood and the false memory effect. Psychological Science, 16, 785–791.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner, M., & Bäuml, K.-H. (2006). Inhibitory deficits in older adults: List-method directed forgetting revisited. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 290–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, Regensburg University, 93040, Regensburg, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Bäuml & Christof Kuhbandner

Authors
  1. Karl-Heinz Bäuml
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christof Kuhbandner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karl-Heinz Bäuml.

Additional information

The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to K.-H.B. (Ba 1382/7-1).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bäuml, KH., Kuhbandner, C. Positive moods can eliminate intentional forgetting. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 93–98 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.1.93

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.1.93

Keywords

  • Affective State
  • Negative Mood
  • False Memory
  • Positive Mood
  • Emotional Content