Intentional forgetting in excessive behavior: direct suppression and thought substitution

Abstract

Excessive behavior refers to certain conduct or activities that exceed normal or healthy levels in terms of degree or frequency and may result in negative consequences for individuals. The present study suggests that negative memories underlie the recurrence and maintenance of excessive behaviors, and investigates whether individuals with excessive behavior might benefit from strategies of intentional forgetting to forget negative memories. In a modified think/no-think (TNT) task, 36 excessive gaming individuals and 36 controls were randomly assigned to two forgetting strategies: direct suppression and thought substitution. Direct suppression involved trying not to recall paired targets in no-think trials, while thought substitution involved participants being given substitutes to recall. The results indicate that thought substitution exhibited significant below-baseline forgetting and produced larger forgetting effects than direct suppression in both the excessive gaming group and the control group. These findings suggest that thought substitution may be a more effective approach to counteract unwanted memories among individuals with excessive behavior. The idea of substitution in this study could also provide enlightenment on interventions for excessive behavior.