Kolańczyk, A. , Reszko, M. & Mordasiewicz, P.
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty in Sopot
The retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) depends on WM. RIF has been observed only in telic memorization. Pursuing a goal, which in this case is “remember”, requires attentional control, which flexibly adjusts mental operations to situational requirements (e.g. unrelated distracters or even related tasks as retrieval practice). If WM is overloaded, attention controls only current task, not the main goal. The present studies verify the hypothesis that valuations direct attention toward goal-relevant, important objects, and devaluations divert attention from unimportant, “rubbish” objects. RIF could be the result of devaluation (inhibition) of non-practiced words from practiced category (Rp-) or of a valuation (positive valuation &control) of non-practiced category (NRP). Individual differences in attentional control are the hypothetical moderator of RIF and goal-relevant evaluations. Therefore, stronger attentional control should produce more pronounced valuations, devaluations and RIF. The Attentional Control Scale and the affective priming task (for implicit evaluations) were introduced to RIF paradigm. The three experiments employing different amount of presented material and different number of retrieval trials, show that implicitly measured affect reflects goal orientation only in subjects who score high on Attentional Control Scale. RIF could be the result of NRP control (valuation), not only RP- inhibition.