"I Never Forget a Face, but in Your Case I'll Be Glad to Make an Exception": Intentional Forgetting of Emotional Faces

The current study used the item-method directed forgetting paradigm to determine whether there are limits on the ability to intentionally forget angry faces. During the study phase, faces were presented, 1 at a time, each followed by an instruction to remember or forget. Following the presentation of all faces, participants performed a yes-no recognition test. In 2 experiments that varied only the presentation duration of the face (500 ms vs. 1,000 ms), we observed an overall directed forgetting effect, with greater recognition of faces studied with remember rather than forget instructions; the magnitude of this effect did not vary with emotional expression. We interpret these results in light of the proposal that priority processing of angry faces benefits the speed of forming an enduring long-term memory trace rather than increasing the strength of that trace.