In item-method directed forgetting studies, participants are shown a series of words and given a corresponding instruction to either remember or forget each word. This method has consistently lead to superior memory for to-be-remembered (TBR) words relative to to-be-forgotten (TBF) words. The present experiment examined the effects of item-method directed forgetting in the context of the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm. Participants were shown lists of words that contained both semantically related (DRM) words and unrelated words. False memory for a strong semantic associate occurred significantly more often when they were told to remember DRM words than when they were told to forget DRM words. The results support the notion that directed forgetting effects using this procedure are due to differential encoding and rehearsal of remember and forget items.