Self-Referential Information Alleviates Retrieval Inhibition of Directed Forgetting Effects-An ERP Evidence of Source Memory.

Xinrui Mao,Yujuan Wang,Yanhong Wu,Chunyan Guo

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00187

Xinrui Mao, Yujuan Wang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00187

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Abstract

Directed forgetting (DF) assists in preventing outdated information from interfering with cognitive processing. Previous studies pointed that self-referential items alleviated DF effects due to the elaboration of encoding processes. However, the retrieval mechanism of this phenomenon remains unknown. Based on the dual-process framework of recognition, the retrieval of self-referential information was involved in familiarity and recollection. Using source memory tasks combined with event-related potential (ERP) recording, our research investigated the retrieval processes of alleviative DF effects elicited by self-referential information. The FN400 (frontal negativity at 400 ms) is a frontal potential at 300–500 ms related to familiarity and the late positive complex (LPC) is a later parietal potential at 500–800 ms related to recollection. The FN400 effects of source memory suggested that familiarity processes were promoted by self-referential effects without the modulation of to-be-forgotten (TBF) instruction. The ERP results of DF effects were involved with LPCs of source memory, which indexed retrieval processing of recollection. The other-referential source memory of TBF instruction caused the absence of LPC effects, while the self-referential source memory of TBF instruction still elicited the significant LPC effects. Therefore, our neural findings suggested that self-referential processing improved both familiarity and recollection. Furthermore, the self-referential processing advantage which was caused by the autobiographical retrieval alleviated retrieval inhibition of DF, supporting that the self-referential source memory alleviated DF effects.

Highlights

Forgetting can be considered an adaptive strategy in preventing traumatic or outdated information from interfering with current cognitive processing (Bjork, 1989)
Given that the self-referential advantages of retrieval rely upon both semantic self-knowledge and autobiographical retrieval (Uncapher and Rugg, 2009; Turk et al, 2013), we investigated the possibility that self-referential information would elicit enhanced behavioral accuracies and increased event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes of FN400 and late positive complex (LPC) effects
Combining a Directed forgetting (DF) paradigm with a source retrieval task, the present study examined whether the DF effects which were alleviated by self-referential information were based on familiarity or recollection

Summary

Introduction

Forgetting can be considered an adaptive strategy in preventing traumatic or outdated information from interfering with current cognitive processing (Bjork, 1989). Some researchers have focused on the neurocognitive mechanism of memory encoding processing, demonstrating that self-referential items are harder to forget than other-referential item (Yang et al, 2013). Directed forgetting (DF) effects are demonstrated by poorer recall and recognition of TBF items (‘‘to-be-forgotten’’) than TBR items (‘‘to-be-remembered’’; Van Hooff et al, 2009). To explore intentional forgetting, a typical paradigm of ‘‘DF’’ is used in the experiment (MacLeod, 1998). This procedure provides two explicit cues to index TBR items and TBF items during the study phase. The selective rehearsal hypothesis suggests that DF stems entirely from the diminished elaboration or rehearsal of TBF rather than TBR words (Woodward et al, 1973; Basden and Gargano, 1993), and the retrieval inhibition hypothesis is that DF suppresses the retrieval of these items (Levy and Anderson, 2008; Mecklinger et al, 2009)

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