Directed Forgetting Of Associative Memories Of Emotional Materials:Perspectives On Type And Level Of Processing

The Level-of-Processing(Lo P)effect refers to the effect of the orienting task during learning on subsequent memory test performance.It is generally accepted that semantically encoded stimuli are usually better remembered than perceptually encoded stimuli.The level of processing,one of the important factors affecting memory performance,has been extensively studied in the field of cognitive psychology for half a century.However,most of these studies have focused on item memory,and relatively few studies have examined associative memory,and researchers have not yet agreed on the classification of "processing levels".In addition,processing levels have been shown to moderate the directed forgetting effect of item memory,but few studies have examined its effect on the directed forgetting of associative memory,and the mechanism remains to be clarified.Finally,it is unclear whether the effects of stimulus emotionality on associative memory are moderated by directed forgetting manipulations.To this end,this paper adopts a directed forgetting paradigm,using emotional associative word pairs as experimental materials,and considers both the depth of processing(qualitative type of information processing)and refinement(degree of information enrichment),and examines different processing types and levels from the perspectives of "quality" and "quantity".The effects of emotional material on associative memory directed forgetting were examined from the perspectives of "quality" and "quantity" under different types and levels of processing.In experiment 1,a three-factor mixed design was adopted: 2(indicator type:remember,forget)×2(processing type: semantic,perception)×3(stimulus emotionality:positive,medium,negative),and the processing type was an intergroup variable.The dependent variables were hit rate(hits)of the original matched items,false alarms(FAs)of the rescheduled items,the performance of associative re-recognition(probability of true recognition,Pr),and the re-recognition reaction time of the original matched and rescheduled items.The results of Experiment 1 showed that(1)processing type can affect associative memory,and associative recollection performance was better than perceptual processing in the semantic processing condition;(2)the directional forgetting effect of associative memory was not affected by processing type or the emotional validity of the experimental material.The between-group variable in Experiment 2 was high and low processing level of semantic processing type,and the rest of the design and dependent variable indicators were consistent with Experiment 1.The results of Experiment 2 showed that under the semantic processing condition:(1)there was the Lo P effect of associative memory;(2)associative memory recognition depends more on recall processing;(3)The directed forgetting effect of associative memory was stable in the Pr index,which was not affected by the processing level.(4)The effects of emotional materials on associative memory showed that negative valence was enhanced and positive valence was inhibited;The between-group variable in Experiment 2 was high and low processing level of semantic processing type,and the rest of the design and dependent variable indicators were consistent with Experiment 1.The results of Experiment 2 showed that under the semantic processing condition:(1)there was the Lo P effect of associative memory;(2)associative memory recognition depends more on recall processing;(3)The directed forgetting effect of associative memory was stable in the Pr index,which was not affected by the processing level.(4)The effects of emotional materials on associative memory showed that negative valence was enhanced and positive valence was inhibited;The between-group variables in Experiment 3 were high and low processing levels of perceptual processing types,and the rest of the design and dependent variable indicators were consistent with Experiments 1 and 2.The results of Experiment 3showed that(1)the Lo P effect did not exist in the perceptual processing condition;(2)the directed forgetting effect of associative memory was stable in perceptual processing and was not affected by the processing level;(3)the meaning of emotional words needed to be acquired through semantic processing;and(4)the recognition of associative word pairs in the perceptual processing condition relied more on familiarity processing.This study draws the following conclusions:(1)The Lo P effect of associative memory for emotional material is not stable and can be influenced by the type of processing.(2)The contributions of familiarity and recall to associative memory are influenced by the type of processing,with semantic processing relying more on recall and perceptual processing relying more on familiarity.(3)The directional forgetting effect of associative memory for emotional material exists stably,independent of processing type and processing level,and the process is jointly engaged by selective recollection and inhibitory control.