The role of outcome inhibition in interference between outcomes: A contingency‐learning analogue of retrieval‐induced forgetting (original) (raw)

Putting retrieval-induced forgetting in context: An inhibition-free, context-based account

Psychological Review, 2013

We present a new theoretical account of retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) together with new experimental evidence that fits this account and challenges the dominant inhibition account. RIF occurs when the retrieval of some material from memory produces later forgetting of related material. The inhibition account asserts that RIF is the result of an inhibition mechanism that acts during retrieval to suppress the representations of interfering competitors. This inhibition is enduring, such that the suppressed material is difficult to access on a later test and is, therefore, recalled more poorly than baseline material. Although the inhibition account is widely accepted, a growing body of research challenges its fundamental assumptions. Our alternative account of RIF instead emphasizes the role of context in remembering. According to this context account, both of 2 tenets must be met for RIF to occur: (a) A context change must occur between study and subsequent retrieval practice, and (b) the retrieval practice context must be the active context during the final test when testing practiced categories. The results of 3 experiments, which directly test the divergent predictions of the 2 accounts, support the context account but cannot be explained by the inhibition account. In an extensive discussion, we survey the literature on RIF and apply our context account to the key findings, demonstrating the explanatory power of context.

Remembering Can Cause Inhibition: Retrieval-Induced Inhibition as Cue Independent Process

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2004

Previous experiments have mostly relied on recall as a dependent measure to assess whether retrieval of information from memory causes inhibition of related information. This study aimed to measure this inhibition in a more direct way. In Experiment 1, it was shown that repeated retrieval of exemplars from a category resulted in longer recognition latencies to nonretrieved exemplars from that same category, compared with recognition latencies to control exemplars. Experiment 2 obtained the same pattern of results using a lexical decision task. This was the 1st time that retrieval-induced forgetting was demonstrated on an implicit test of memory. To exclude noninhibitory explanations of the data, the exemplars were presented in both experiments without their categories as cues.

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Context

Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2015

Retrieving information can result in the forgetting of related information, a phenomenon referred to as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). To date, the dominant explanation of RIF has been an inhibition account, which emphasizes long-term suppression of interfering memories. As one alternative, some have advocated for a strength-based interference account, which emphasizes the role of strengthening associations. More recently, we have proposed a context account, which emphasizes the role of context change and context reinstatement. In this article, we outline these three accounts of RIF and demonstrate that there is substantial evidence that uniquely supports our context account.

Rethinking interference theory: Executive control and the mechanisms of forgetting

Interference provides an account of one of the most basic problems in the science of memory: forgetting. Historically, theories of this process were shaped by models of associative learning prevalent when interference research began. In this article, I argue that we should reconsider the long-standing conceptualization of interference as a learning phenomenon and reframe interference as arising from systems that achieve mental and behavioral control. Specifically, it is argued that forgetting is not a passive side effect of storing new memories, but results from inhibitory control mechanisms recruited to override prepotent responses. In support of this idea, I discuss two control situations in which response override is necessary—selection and stopping—and show how these situations have direct parallels in retrieval. I then review evidence that in both of these situations, the need to override prepotent, distracting memories is supported by inhibitory mechanisms that ultimately cause forgetting. The theoretical properties of these inhibitory effects are outlined, along with critical factors known to modulate or mask inhibition. The relation between this executive control theory of forgetting and classical accounts of interference is discussed.

A progress report on the inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting

Memory & Cognition, 2012

Remembering and forgetting reflect fundamentally interdependent processes in human memory (Bjork, 2011). This interdependency is particularly apparent in research on retrieval-induced forgetting, which has shown that retrieving a subset of information can cause the forgetting of other information (Anderson et al.

Is Forgetting Caused by Inhibition?

Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2013

A well-known finding in memory research is the forgetting effect that occurs due to practicing some item A on the recall of a related item B. The traditional explanation for such interference effects is based on the notion of competition. According to the inhibition theory of forgetting, however, such forgetting is due to an inhibitory control process that operates whenever the retrieval of specific target information is hindered by competition from related information. The suppression of the related information is a longer-lasting phenomenon that may show up on later testing. We report several experiments that were carried out to test two fundamental assumptions of the inhibition theory, the interference dependence and retrieval specificity assumptions. The results of these experiments do not support the predictions of the inhibition theory. Instead, the results are more compatible with the standard account that attributes the forgetting to competition at the time of the later testing.

Retrieval-induced forgetting: Testing the competition assumption of inhibition theory

Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 2012

Practicing the retrieval of some information can lead to poorer retrieval of other related information, a phenomenon called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). This pattern has been explained as the result of inhibition of the related information during practice (Anderson, 2003). A core assumption of this inhibition account is that, to be suppressed, the related information must compete with the target information at the time of retrieval practice. Three experiments are reported that test this competition assumption. One experiment showed that RIF did not occur without specific retrieval practice of the target items when semantic generation of subordinates was performed. However, in 2 further experiments, RIF did occur when the semantic generation task was paired with category retrieval. Although there was no need for competition between target information and related information in these experiments, RIF was observed. These experiments undermine the competition assumption and hence the inhibition account.