Intention matters more than attention: Item-method directed forgetting of items at attended and unattended locations

This study embedded attentional cues in the study phase of an item-method directed forgetting task. We used an unpredictive onset cue (Experiment 1 ), a predictive onset cue (Experiment 2 ), or a predictive central cue (Experiments 3 – 6 ) to direct attention to the left or right. In Experiments 1 – 5 , this was followed by a pink or blue study word that required a speeded colour discrimination; in Experiment 6 , it was followed by a pink or blue word or nonword that required a lexical decision. Each study word was followed by an instruction to Remember or Forget. A yes–no recognition test confirmed better recognition of to-be-remembered words than to-be-forgotten words; a cueing effect confirmed the effectiveness of predictive cues in allocating attentional resources. There was, however, no evidence that the directed forgetting effect differed for attended and unattended words: Encoding depends more on the memory intention formed after a study word has disappeared than on the availability of processing resources when that word first appears.