Department of Psychology, National Chung-Cheng University, Chiayi 621, Taiwan, China.
Cogn Emot. 2013;27(3):401-15. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2012.713326. Epub 2012 Aug 16.
Four experiments using the item-method directed forgetting procedure examined how people intentionally forget significant negative emotional events. The cued-recall test showed that the directed forgetting effect was smaller for negative events than for neutral events. For both negative and neutral events, post-forgetting probe reaction times were longer than post-remembering probe reaction times on a speeded spatial judgement task, suggesting that forgetting was more demanding than remembering within seconds after the memory cue. As compared with the control group, participants who performed a secondary task after the memory cue forgot fewer negative events and did not show the directed forgetting effect. Finally, participants allocated more study time to forgetting negative events than neutral events. Results are discussed in terms of attentional and metacognitive mechanisms that involve the attenuated directed forgetting effect for emotional self-relevant events.
四项使用项目法定向遗忘程序的实验研究了人们如何有意地忘记重要的负面情绪事件。提示回忆测试表明，定向遗忘效应在负面事件中比中性事件中更小。对于负面和中性事件，在快速空间判断任务中，遗忘后探测的反应时间比记忆后探测的反应时间长，这表明在记忆线索后几秒钟内，遗忘比记忆更具挑战性。与对照组相比，在记忆线索后执行次要任务的参与者忘记的负面事件较少，并且没有表现出定向遗忘效应。最后，参与者为忘记负面事件分配的学习时间多于中性事件。结果从涉及情绪自我相关事件的定向遗忘效应减弱的注意和元认知机制方面进行了讨论。
