Menor de Gaspar, J.
Department of Psychology. University of Oviedo. Oviedo. Spain
The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the reduction of attentional resources affect to the processing of items to be forgotten (TBF). The directed forgetting procedure (item-method) was used and the divided attention was manipulated between-subjects. The dual-task group performed the directed forgetting task while carried out a testing task sums. The single-task group only made the directed forgetting task. EEG was recorded and ERPs were obtained during the recognition test. The dual-task group recognized less items to be remembered (TBR) and more TBF-items than the single-task group. In 150-300 ms period, TBF items elicited ERPs more positive than TBR items on frontal electrode sites only in single-task group. In 500-700 ms period, the differences observed in single task-group between the ERPs evoked by TBR and TBF items were reduced in the dual-task group. These results challenge the view that directed forgetting in the item-method procedure is due to the passive decay of items to forget. Instead, they show that the withdrawal of processing resources during the study phase affects both the recognition of TBR and TBF items, indicating that intentional forgetting is an active process that requires attentional resources.