Conscious and unconscious influences of memory: Temporal dynamics

Changes in the conscious and unconscious influences of memory over time wer e assessed in two experiments by using a variant of the process-dissociatio n procedure. In both experiments, performance on a stem-completion task was measured under both inclusion and exclusion instructions. Across the two e xperiments, there were four different retention intervals: 2 minutes, 2 day s, 2 weeks, and 2 months. The results indicated that conscious influences d ecreased systematically across retention interval. In contrast, unconscious influences of memory in the absence of conscious influences increased betw een 2 minutes and 2 days, and then remained relatively stable from 2 days t o 2 weeks to 2 months. These results stand in apparent contrast to those of McBride and Dosher (1999), which showed equal rates of forgetting for cons cious and unconscious influences of memory on performance. The implications for models of the relation between conscious and unconscious influences of memory on performance are discussed.