The Development of Efficient Inhibition: Evidence from Directed-Forgetting Tasks

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are (1) to end the confusion over the mechanisms producing directed-forgetting effects in the three methods of cuing items in directed-forgetting tasks, (2) to highlight the role of inhibition in blocked and “only” cued directed-forgetting tasks, and (3) to review and reinterpret the developmental directed-forgetting literature within an inhibition framework. We argue that item-by-item cued directed-forgetting tasks manipulate selective rehearsal to produce greater recall of to-be-remembered (TBR) than to-be-forgotten (TBF) items. In contrast, both blocked and “only” cued directed-forgetting tasks manipulate retrieval inhibition, a form of cognitive inhibition, to produce the suppression of TBF items. The current developmental directed-forgetting literature is reviewed and reinterpreted in light of this framework. It is concluded that in item-by-item tasks children can produce directed-forgetting effects using selective rehearsal by second grade. In blocked and “only” cued directed-forgetting tasks children can produce directed-forgetting effects as early as third grade in some instances, but usually not until fifth grade. Future directions for research on cognitive inhibition, especially its role in the investigation of repressed memories, are also discussed.