{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/107916"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/107916","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Can we intentionally forget associative information?","abstract":"I report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item information, or whether it also impairs associative information. Previous research obtained DF in an associative recognition paradigm, implicating possible impairment of associative information. However, impaired associative recognition could also arise from impaired item information, and reflect the downstream effect of item impairment. The current studies employed a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed dissociating item impairment from associative impairment in DF. In Experiment 1, under strong associative encoding conditions, DF impairment was observed only when the lures came from the same cue condition as the target; however, DF was eliminated when the Forget targets were paired with Remember lures, possibly due to a recall-to-reject strategy. The exact opposite was found in Experiment 2, under weak associative encoding conditions, where pairing the Forget targets with Remember lures resulted in substantial DF, whereas there was no DF when the lures and the target came from the same memory instruction. In Experiment 3, I employed the use of eye-tracking to assess how DF impairment of associative information is reflected in eye-movements. The results showed that eye-movements differentiated between incidental forgetting (Remember items that are forgotten) and successful intentional forgetting (Forget items that are forgotten), providing support for the active account of DF. I conclude that the results provide strong support for the impairment of associative information by DF.","abstract_html":"I report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item information, or whether it also impairs associative information. Previous research obtained DF in an associative recognition paradigm, implicating possible impairment of associative information. However, impaired associative recognition could also arise from impaired item information, and reflect the downstream effect of item impairment. The current studies employed a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed dissociating item impairment from associative impairment in DF. In Experiment 1, under strong associative encoding conditions, DF impairment was observed only when the lures came from the same cue condition as the target; however, DF was eliminated when the Forget targets were paired with Remember lures, possibly due to a recall-to-reject strategy. The exact opposite was found in Experiment 2, under weak associative encoding conditions, where pairing the Forget targets with Remember lures resulted in substantial DF, whereas there was no DF when the lures and the target came from the same memory instruction. In Experiment 3, I employed the use of eye-tracking to assess how DF impairment of associative information is reflected in eye-movements. The results showed that eye-movements differentiated between incidental forgetting (Remember items that are forgotten) and successful intentional forgetting (Forget items that are forgotten), providing support for the active account of DF. I conclude that the results provide strong support for the impairment of associative information by DF.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Whitlock, Jonathon"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Sahakyan, Lili"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-08-26T21:54:28Z","date_published":"2020-08-26T21:54:28Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:47Z","subjects":["Directed Forgetting, Associative Information, Relational Memory, Eye-Tracking"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Jonathon Whitlock"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107916","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Sahakyan, Lili"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Whitlock, Jonathon"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-08-26T21:54:28Z","2020-04-28","2020-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Directed Forgetting, Associative Information, Relational Memory, Eye-Tracking"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Jonathon Whitlock"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107916"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["I report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item information, or whether it also impairs associative information. Previous research obtained DF in an associative recognition paradigm, implicating possible impairment of associative information. However, impaired associative recognition could also arise from impaired item information, and reflect the downstream effect of item impairment. The current studies employed a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed dissociating item impairment from associative impairment in DF. In Experiment 1, under strong associative encoding conditions, DF impairment was observed only when the lures came from the same cue condition as the target; however, DF was eliminated when the Forget targets were paired with Remember lures, possibly due to a recall-to-reject strategy. The exact opposite was found in Experiment 2, under weak associative encoding conditions, where pairing the Forget targets with Remember lures resulted in substantial DF, whereas there was no DF when the lures and the target came from the same memory instruction. In Experiment 3, I employed the use of eye-tracking to assess how DF impairment of associative information is reflected in eye-movements. The results showed that eye-movements differentiated between incidental forgetting (Remember items that are forgotten) and successful intentional forgetting (Forget items that are forgotten), providing support for the active account of DF. I conclude that the results provide strong support for the impairment of associative information by DF.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-08-25 without embargo terms","The student, Jonathon Whitlock, accepted the attached license on 2020-04-24 at 13:47.","The student, Jonathon Whitlock, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-04-24 at 13:50.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-04-28 at 13:14.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15062 on 2020-08-25 at 17:08:17","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T21:54:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 WHITLOCK-THESIS-2020.pdf: 545101 bytes, checksum: 14bc73d99ca1962709f6d56657efeb62 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4214 bytes, checksum: 9441f27dd8d4a6de086a2a9401a2d6af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-04-28"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Can we intentionally forget associative information?"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Sahakyan, Lili"],"dc:creator":["Whitlock, Jonathon"],"dc:date":["2020-08-26T21:54:28Z","2020-04-28","2020-05"],"dc:description":["I report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item information, or whether it also impairs associative information. Previous research obtained DF in an associative recognition paradigm, implicating possible impairment of associative information. However, impaired associative recognition could also arise from impaired item information, and reflect the downstream effect of item impairment. The current studies employed a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed dissociating item impairment from associative impairment in DF. In Experiment 1, under strong associative encoding conditions, DF impairment was observed only when the lures came from the same cue condition as the target; however, DF was eliminated when the Forget targets were paired with Remember lures, possibly due to a recall-to-reject strategy. The exact opposite was found in Experiment 2, under weak associative encoding conditions, where pairing the Forget targets with Remember lures resulted in substantial DF, whereas there was no DF when the lures and the target came from the same memory instruction. In Experiment 3, I employed the use of eye-tracking to assess how DF impairment of associative information is reflected in eye-movements. The results showed that eye-movements differentiated between incidental forgetting (Remember items that are forgotten) and successful intentional forgetting (Forget items that are forgotten), providing support for the active account of DF. I conclude that the results provide strong support for the impairment of associative information by DF.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-08-25 without embargo terms","The student, Jonathon Whitlock, accepted the attached license on 2020-04-24 at 13:47.","The student, Jonathon Whitlock, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-04-24 at 13:50.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-04-28 at 13:14.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15062 on 2020-08-25 at 17:08:17","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T21:54:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 WHITLOCK-THESIS-2020.pdf: 545101 bytes, checksum: 14bc73d99ca1962709f6d56657efeb62 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4214 bytes, checksum: 9441f27dd8d4a6de086a2a9401a2d6af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-04-28"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107916"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2020 Jonathon Whitlock"],"dc:subject":["Directed Forgetting, Associative Information, Relational Memory, Eye-Tracking"],"dc:title":["Can we intentionally forget associative information?"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:47Z"}