95. Directed forgetting effect in patients with frontal lobe damage

To study the role of the frontal lobes in episodic remembering, directed forgetting effect of frontal patients was examined. Eight patients with frontal lobe damage, eight patients with temporoparietal lobe damage, and eight normal subjects were given a list of 24 nouns (12 remember-cued words and 12 forget-cued words). On the list method (Experiment 1), frontal patients were significantly impaired in recalling remember-cued items whereas they recalled inappropriate forget-cued items. Frontal patients showed much less directed forgetting effect than two control groups. On the item method (Experiment 2), performance of frontal patients was in between the other two groups. Patients with frontal lobe damage appeared to have impaired retrieval inhibition, and their retrieval process is interfered with by inappropriate stimuli which should be forgotten.