Current Perspectives on Directed Forgetting

Abstract This chapter reviews updated Directed Forgetting (DF) research, reflecting significant changes in the field. It is divided into four sections, beginning with methodologies of item-method and list-method DF and their measurement challenges. The next section addresses how people respond to directed forgetting cues by implementing forgetting strategies, suggesting a shift towards controlled processes. Subsequent sections summarize empirical and theoretical developments, indicating a paradigm shift that has taken place in DF theorizing—namely, list-method DF, once attributed to retrieval inhibition is now considered by some to reflect a context-change phenomenon, whereas item-method DF, previously explained by selective rehearsal processes is now being reevaluated for encoding inhibition and contextual unbinding processes. Such views provide a radical departure from the ways that DF has been interpreted previously, and they highlight how conceptualizing about DF has evolved in light of newer research methodologies and findings.