Abstract
To investigate the mechanisms underlying intentional forgetting, the present study examined therelationship between perceived thought control ability and item-method directed forgetting.Participants were presented with a face, followed by an instruction that asked them to eitherremember or forget the preceding face. In a test, participants took an old/new recognition test offaces. Finally, participants answered questionnaires regarding to perceived thought control ability(TCAQ) and mind wandering (MWQ). The results showed directed forgetting of faces: participantscorrectly recognized more faces with ‘remember’ instruction than faces with ‘forget’ one. We discussthe relationships between individual differences in thought control ability, such as TCAQ andMWQ, and the magnitude of item-method directed forgetting.
