摘要：Previous researchers have interpreted the phenomenon of directed forgetting in terms of animal short-term memory and rehearsal. An alternative explanation-that directed forgetting is attributable to the response or nonresponse to a sequence of stimuli-is proposed and tested with rats. Rats were tested for directed forgetting using a variation of the standard directed forgetting task, in which the sample was followed by either a remember cue or a forget cue, and in which there was a second cue immediately before the presentation of the comparison stimuli. Results appear to support the memory and rehearsal explanation of directed forgetting.
