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APPLICATIONS OF INTENTIONAL SUPPRESSION: THE EFFECT OF SUPPRESSION ON RECOGNITION MEMORY OF ECOLOGICALLY VALID STIMULI

Hart, Rhiannon Ellis (2006) APPLICATIONS OF INTENTIONAL SUPPRESSION: THE EFFECT OF SUPPRESSION ON RECOGNITION MEMORY OF ECOLOGICALLY VALID STIMULI. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There are many situations in life when people try to forget information they have previously learned. It is therefore important to understand how to avoid negative memories. One method of evaluating how we actively forget, or suppress, information is to take advantage of a procedure known as the think/no-think (TNT) paradigm (Anderson and Green, 2001). In the TNT paradigm, individuals learn to associate pairs of stimuli, and must either rehearse or suppress one of the stimuli when presented with the other. The TNT paradigm allows for direct comparisons of forgetting rates of rehearsed and suppressed information. The goal of the present research was to consider the generalizability of the TNT paradigm. The first experiment involved the TNT paradigm and paired neutral words and nonverbal shapes in order to made old/new judgments and demonstrated that individuals are indeed capable of forgetting information using suppression, even when presented with the original stimuli and asked whether they have previously seen it, and even with nonverbal shapes as the stimuli. The procedure in Experiment 2 was similar to that of Experiment 1, but used neutral faces and positive, neutral, or negative words, and results indicated that individuals can use suppression to forget powerful, ecologically valid stimuli - namely, faces. This effect was most driven by instances when the cue to think about the faces was negative. Finally, the procedure for Experiment 3 mirrored that of Experiment 2, except with all neutral words and faces that varied in valence. Results demonstrated that individuals are better able to forget negative than neutral or positive faces when suppressing a neutral cue. These findings constitute a first step in a fundamentally advancing our understanding of real life forgetting experiences. The ability to forget information in difficult situations generalizes previous findings to more everyday situations. The fact that we can suppress faces implies we might be able to use suppression in real situations involving people of negative personal significance. Contrary to previous valence research, negative information was easier to suppress than neutral or positive information.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Hart, Rhiannon Ellisrellis@pitt.eduRELLIS
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee CoChairSchooler, Jonathan
Committee CoChairFiez, Julie
Committee MemberBecker, Jim
Committee MemberKlein, William
Date: 28 September 2006
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 7 July 2006
Approval Date: 28 September 2006
Submission Date: 18 August 2006
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: forgetting; intentional forgetting; mmemory; think-no think
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08182006-115617/, etd-08182006-115617
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 20:00
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:49
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9176

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