Retrieval-induced Forgetting Effect Research Articles

The Role of Motor Representation in Enactment Effect of Action Memory.

Noun-verb phrases are more efficiently remembered when they are enacted during learning than when they are only verbally studied, a phenomenon known as the enactment effect. While studies have debated whether motor information is key to this effect, our study explores whether the organization of motor information can support the enactment effect. We used the retrieval-practice paradigm to induce retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). In Experiment 1, we found an RIF effect of categorization into physical motor properties (e.g., rotation-motor category), which was significantly stronger during enactment learning. In Experiment 2, we also found an RIF effect of categorization into physical motor properties with additional imagery features (e.g., the hand-physical and round-object category), but there was no significant difference between enactment learning and verbal learning. These findings suggest that motor information is fundamental to the enactment effect, but it is not primarily assimilated, even in the presence of various types of information, in the processing of action memory. We discuss these findings in the context of multimodal theory and episodic integration theory.

Retrieval-induced forgetting with novel visual stimuli is retrieval-specific and strength- independent

ABSTRACT Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is the phenomenon whereby remembering a subset of learned items can reduce memory for other related items. There are two main explanations for this effect: the competition account and the inhibition account. Most research to date has favoured the inhibition account, though two potential confounds have been identified in the evidence for key predictions of the account: (1) Using binary measures of accuracy may make it difficult to detect correlations between the magnitude of RIF and the increase in recall for practised items that is predicted by the competition account (strength dependence), and (2) typical non-competitive restudy may be too weak a form of practice to elicit detectible RIF effects. The present study aimed to test these contentions by adapting the RIF paradigm to allow a more graded measurement of memory strength and a more active form of non-competitive practice. We trained participants (N = 87) to draw sets of novel shapes from memory, using colour as a category cue and overlaid patterns as individual item recall cues. Responses were graded based on the number of features present and items underwent retrieval practice, copying practice (as a more effective form of restudy), or no practice. The results demonstrated RIF in the retrieval practice condition, but no evidence of RIF in the restudy condition, despite a large memory gain for practised items, supporting the notion of retrieval specificity. There was no evidence of strength dependence in any condition. Our results are consistent with the forgetting in this experiment being driven by inhibition.

Self-protecting motivation, indexed by self-threat, modifies retrieval-induced-forgetting and confidence in employment decision bias against out-group targets

Human memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments. Chinese participants received a mild self-threat manipulation (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) before an ethnicity-RIF task that involved practicing negative traits of either in-group (Chinese) or an out-group (Japanese) target. After a subsequent memory test, participants selected their preferred applicant for employment. RIF scores correspond to forgetting of unpracticed positive traits of one target (Rp−) relative to the recall of practiced negative traits of the other target (Rp+). Enhanced forgetting of positive traits was found in both experiments for both targets. Across experiments, a significant target by threat interaction showed that target ethnicity modified RIF (an ethnicity-RIF effect). Inducing a self-protecting motivation enhanced RIF effects for the out-group (Japanese) target. In a subsequent employment decision, there was a strong bias to select the in-group target, with the confidence in these decisions being associated with RIF scores. This study suggests that rehearsing negative traits of minority applicants can affect metacognitive aspects of employment decisions, possibly by shaping the schemas available to the majority (in-group) employer. To disrupt systemic racism, recruitment practices should aim to offset a human motivation to protect one-self, when exposed to a relatively mild threat to self-esteem. Discussing the negative traits of minority applicants is a critical, and sensitive, aspect of decision-making that warrants careful practice. These data suggest that recruiting individuals should be reminded of their personal strengths in this context, not their vulnerabilities, to secure their decision-making for fairer recruitment practice.

Repeated retrieval of generalized memories can impair specific autobiographical recall: A retrieval induced forgetting account.

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) refers to the tendency toward increased general memory and reduced specific memory recall, observed in various psychiatric disorders. Previous studies have suggested that inhibitory processes involved in resolving competition between competing memories may reduce memory specificity via retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). However, it remains unclear whether the repeated retrieval of general memories can induce forgetting of specific memories. We adapted the RIF paradigm to address this question across three experiments. Participants first generated specific memories in response to positively and negatively valenced cue words. They then generated and repeatedly retrieved general memories for half of the cue words. Recall for all of the original specific memories was later tested. Experiment 1 showed that the retrieval practice of general memories reduced the recall of associated specific memories, regardless of cue valence. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this forgetting effect was cue independent, occurring even when novel retrieval cues were used on the final test. Experiment 3 suggested that this effect was competition dependent, finding a greater RIF effect following practice of general memories (high competition) than following a cue-color association task (low competition). These results suggest that repeated retrieval of general memories suppressed specific memory representations through RIF. These findings are discussed in relation to hierarchical models of autobiographical memory, mechanisms that maintain overgeneral memory tendencies, and the role of retrieval in shaping autobiographical memory.

Exhaustion of the Executive Control Capacity Eliminates Retrieval Induced Forgetting.

Retrieval Induced Forgetting (RIF) demonstrates that retrieval of information can lead to forgetting of related information. The standard RIF paradigm involves studying a certain number of category-exemplar pairs; thereafter, half of the exemplars from half of the categories are retrieved. Finally, all studied pairs are recalled. RIF is revealed when unretrieved exemplars from the retrieved categories are more poorly recalled than exemplars from the unretrieved categories. One explanation for RIF asserts that inhibition prevents interference from the exemplars of the same category during the interpolated retrieval practice phase, which leads to forgetting of these items at final recall. An ongoing debate concerns whether this inhibition requires executive control or whether it is automatic. If inhibition in RIF involves executive control, then a task that will exhaust this limited capacity should reduce or eliminate the RIF effect. The effects of concurrent tasks during the retrieval practice phase have been shown to reduce or eliminate RIF, however, to our knowledge, the effects of prior tasks on RIF has not been investigated. In the present study, in one condition, we conducted an exhaustive inhibition task before the retrieval practice phase and compared this condition to the one in which the prior task was non-exhaustive. Results showed that the RIF effect was eliminated when the prior task was exhaustive. The results supported the executive control view for the inhibition mechanism behind RIF and further showed that exhaustion of the executive control capacity can impair inhibition in subsequent tasks.

Cumulative semantic cost without successful naming

Accessing semantic information has negative consequences for successive recovering attempts of similar information. For instance, in the course of picture-naming tasks, the time required to name an object is determined by the total number of items from the same category that have already been named; naming latencies increase proportionally to the total number of semantically related words named previously. This phenomenon is called cumulative semantic cost (or interference). Two picture-naming experiments with children (4–11 years old, 229 participants) investigate whether having successfully named the previous within-category items is a necessary condition for the cumulative semantic cost to appear. We anticipated that younger children would have a larger rate of nonresponses compared with older children, reflecting the fact that younger children have not yet consolidated many lexical representations. Our results confirmed this prediction. Critically, we also observed that cumulative semantic cost was independent of having successfully retrieved previous within-category lexical items. Furthermore, picture trials for which the previous within-category item elicited a nonresponse showed the same amount of cost as those picture trials for which the previous within-category item elicited a correct naming event. Our findings indicate that it is the attempt to retrieve a lexical unit, and not the successful retrieval of a specific lexical unit, that causes semantic cost in picture naming. This cost can be explained by a mechanism of weakening the semantic-to-lexical mappings of semantic coordinate words. The findings are also discussed in the context of retrieval-induced forgetting effects in memory recall research.

Integrative representation of semantic and motor information underlies the enactment effect in memory for actions

ABSTRACT The present study adopted the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect to determine whether semantic representation might favour the enactment effect, in which noun-verb phrases are remembered better by enacting during learning (subject-performed tasks, SPTs) than by studying verbally (verbal tasks, VTs). Experiment 1 controlled the semantic category to investigate the RIF effect in SPT vs. VT conditions. The RIF effect was similar irrespective of the mode of encoding (SPT vs.VT), indicating that semantic representation was not the main factor for favouring the enactment effect. Furthermore, Experiment 2 added motor physical properties to simultaneously control the semantic category and one category by motor features. The results of Experiment 2 showed stronger cooperative representation of semantic and motor information under the VT condition, indicating that the processing of action memory may be conceptual.

Sleep accelerates re-stabilization of human declarative memories.

Consolidated memories can return to a labile state upon presentation of a reminder, followed by a period of re-stabilization known as reconsolidation. This period can take several hours, and if an amnesic agent (e.g. new learning) is administered inside the time window of reconsolidation (when the memory is still labile) the memory is impaired, whereas the memory remains unaffected if the amnesic agent is administered outside this time window. Sleep plays a fundamental role in the consolidation and integration of new memories, and recently sleep has also been implicated in memory reconsolidation. Here, we studied the role of sleep in accelerating the reconsolidation time window. On day 1, participants learned a list of syllable-pairs (List 1). On day 2, they received a reminder, followed by interference learning (List 2) administered either after 90 min of wakefulness, after 90 min of sleep, or after 10 h of wakefulness. On day 3, participants had to recall List 1 first, followed by List 2, and we assessed the Retrieval-Induced-Forgetting Effect (RIF) on List 2 as a measure of List 1 memory stability. We found that the 90 min sleep group showed an intact RIF effect similar to the 10 h wake group, reflecting stable List 1 memory after 90 min of sleep and after 10 h of wakefulness. However, the RIF effect was absent after 90 min of wakefulness, suggesting that the List 1 memory was still labile at that time. Moreover, the RIF effect in the 90 min sleep group was associated with power density in the slow oscillation frequency band (0.5-1 Hz) during SWS and S2. These findings suggest that 90 min of sleep accelerate memory re-stabilization after reminder presentation, shortening the reconsolidation time window and protecting the memory against subsequent interference. This rapid memory re-stabilization may depend on slow oscillation activity during NREM sleep.

An evaluation of sex and cultural differences in arithmetic retrieval-induced forgetting

ABSTRACTRetrieval practice of arithmetic facts (e.g. 2 × 3) can interfere with retrieval of other, closely related arithmetic facts (e.g. 2 + 3), increasing response time (RT) and errors for these problems. Here we examined potential sex and culture-related differences in arithmetic retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). This was motivated by re-analyses of several published arithmetic RIF data sets that appeared to show that the effect occurred for women but not men. Experiment 1 (n = 72) tested for possible sex differences in a diverse but predominantly Canadian university sample. Experiment 2 (n = 48) examined potential sex differences in native Chinese participants, which previous research indicated may not be susceptible to the RIF effect for a particular subset of small addition problems (sum ≤ 10). In Experiment 1, we found no evidence that the addition RIF effect differed between male and female adults. In Experiment 2, the Chinese adults showed RIF for tie problems (e.g. 2 + 2, 3 + 3, etc.) regardless of sex, but neither sex presented RIF for small non-tie addition problems. The results indicated that the RIF effect is not gender specific, and there might not be strong memory retrieval competition between addition and multiplication facts for non-tie problems in Chinese adults.

Retrieval-induced versus context-induced forgetting: Can restudy preceded by context change simulate retrieval-induced forgetting?

Abstract Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that retrieval practice on a subset of studied items can induce later forgetting of related unpracticed items. The context account of RIF, which attributes RIF to a mismatch of study context and reinstated context at test for the unpracticed items, claims that RIF effects can be simulated by restudy trials when these trials are preceded by context change. To test this proposal, we compared across three experiments effects of retrieval practice and of restudy trials preceded by context change, employing both recall and item recognition testing. We found retrieval practice to impair both recall and recognition of unpracticed items, which is consistent with prior work. In contrast, restudy preceded by context change impaired recall but not recognition of the items. These findings suggest that restudy preceded by context change cannot simulate RIF, which challenges the context account of RIF. The results are consistent with the view of a critical role of retrieval and inhibition in RIF.

The ‘Magical’ Effect of Integration on Event Memory

SummaryOnly a handful of studies have extended our understanding of retrieval induced forgetting (RIF) during development and even fewer have tested for RIF effects outside word‐list paradigms. The purpose of these experiments was to: (i) examine how partial retrieval of a witnessed event would impact subsequent retrieval of that event in school‐aged children; and (ii) examine the robustness of semantic integration as a boundary condition on RIF. Two experiments were conducted using the three traditional phases of the RIF paradigm: study phase, practice phase, and test phase. We found clear evidence of RIF in event memory. There was also evidence of the robust impact that integration instructions have on minimizing RIF. Integration appears to not only have a dampening effect on RIF, but integration instructions may also influence how children process all aspects of an experience, regardless of whether a person is passively or actively part of the experience.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Individual differences in retrieval-induced forgetting affect the impact of frontal dysfunction on retrieval-induced forgetting

Introduction: Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigms are used to investigate successful forgetting of irrelevant information. Responses to the RIF paradigm can vary substantially, but to date there has been limited investigation of the individual difference factors that contribute to RIF performances. This study investigated whether individual differences in baseline RIF ability impacted on RIF performance after temporarily induced frontal dysfunction. To examine this question, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) function was temporarily reduced using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Method: Fourteen individuals received tDCS (sham/active) on two separate occasions and completed a RIF paradigm within 30 minutes of receiving tDCS. Results: As expected, the group of individuals who demonstrated high levels of RIF after sham tDCS demonstrated a significant reduction in RIF performance after active tDCS. Unexpectedly, however, those individuals who demonstrated low or reverse RIF effects after sham tDCS showed a significant increase in RIF after active tDCS. Conclusions: This is the first study to show that individual differences in premorbid RIF affect RIF performance after temporary reduction in left DLPFC function. These findings suggest that premorbid RIF ability may be an important factor to consider when investigating the impact of frontal dysfunction on RIF in patient populations.

Finding retrieval-induced forgetting in recognition tests: a case for baseline memory strength.

Retrieval practice of previously studied material can impair subsequent memory for related unpracticed material. An emerging view holds that such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) may affect episodic recollection, but not the context-free familiarity of the affected items. Here, a survey of accruing recent findings of RIF in recognition tests shows that the impairment of unpracticed material depends vitally on baseline memory strength. Therein, the absence of RIF under specific conditions, previously taken as evidence for the immunity of familiarity, can be predicted on grounds of exceedingly low baseline levels. Similarly, differential RIF effects on the parameters of dual-process recognition models can be explained by baseline differences, suggesting that RIF might impair any sub-process that substantially contributes to overall recognition accuracy. By contrast, the strengthening of practiced material appears independent of baseline levels and does not predict the magnitude of RIF, in accordance with an inhibitory causation of the forgetting. In summary, the inventory presents RIF in recognition as a subtle proportional impairment, future illumination of which may demand increased attention to baseline memory levels.

The relationship between thought suppression and retrieval-induced forgetting: an analysis of witness memories.

The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship between individual differences in thought suppression and retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in witness-like situations. We predicted that people who are more prone to suppress undesired thoughts and memories would demonstrate a stronger RIF effect. Consistent with findings obtained in a US sample (Blumberg in Personal Individ Differ 29:943-950, 2000), results of a preliminary study (Study 1) confirmed the three-factor structure of the white bear suppression inventory (WBSI): the tendency to rely on thought suppression (suppression dimension), the frequency of experiencing intrusive thoughts (intrusion dimension), and the frequency of using self-distraction to avoid undesired thoughts (self-distraction dimension). Consistent with our hypotheses, Study 2 found that only the suppression sub-dimension of the WBSI was positively and significantly related to RIF. Theoretical expectations of these findings and implications for witness research are discussed.

The hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and selective memory retrieval: evidence from a rodent model of the retrieval-induced forgetting effect.

Inhibition is an important component of many cognitive functions, including memory. For example, the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect occurs when extra practice with some items from a study list inhibits the retrieval of the nonpracticed items relative to a baseline condition that does not involve extra practice. Although counterintuitive, the RIF phenomenon may be important for resolving interference by inhibiting potentially competing retrieval targets. Neuroimaging studies suggest that the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are involved in the RIF effect, but controlled lesion studies have not yet been performed. We developed a rodent model of the RIF training procedure and trained control rats and rats with temporary inactivation of the hippocampus or medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Rats were trained on a list of odor cues, presented in cups of digging medium with a buried reward, followed by additional practice trials with a subset of the cues. We then tested the rats' memories for the cues and their association with reward by presenting them with unbaited cups containing the test odorants and measuring how long they persisted in digging. Control rats exhibited a robust RIF effect in which memory for the nonpracticed odors was significantly inhibited. Thus, extra practice with some odor cues inhibited memory for the others, relative to a baseline condition that involved an identical amount of training. Inactivation of either the hippocampus or the mPFC blocked the RIF effect. We also constructed a computational model of a representational learning circuit to simulate the RIF effect. We show in this model that "sideband suppression" of similar memory representations can reproduce the RIF effect and that alteration of the suppression parameters and learning rate can reproduce the lesion effects seen in our rats. Our results suggest that the RIF effect is widespread and that inhibitory processes are an important feature of memory function.

Retrieval-induced forgetting under psychosocial stress: No reduction by delayed stress and beta-adrenergic blockade

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is the phenomenon that ‘retrieval-practice’, the repeated retrieval of a subset of initially learned material, can impair the recall of episodically related memories. Previous studies showed that RIF is eliminated when retrieval-practice is carried out under psycho-social stress, anxiety, or in negative mood. However, pharmacological manipulation by hydrocortisone did not eliminate the effect. This study investigated the effect of beta-adrenergic blockade on stress-induced modulations of RIF, addressing possible interactive effects of the glucocorticoid and sympatho–adrenomedullary systems. Participants learned categorized word lists and then received either 60mg propranolol or a placebo. After 90min they were exposed to the TSST. A third group did not receive any medication and performed a non-stressful control task with the same timing as the other two groups. Finally, all participants underwent retrieval-practice and final recall. Both TSST groups exhibited a stress-induced increase in cortisol-levels, and the placebo group also exhibited large increases in markers of sympathetic nervous system activity and more psychological distress at the time of retrieval-practice. Although, overall recall was poorer under stress, an overall RIF effect emerged irrespective of group and showed no clear modulation by stress with or without beta-adrenergic blockade. In previous demonstrations of RIF elimination by negative emotion, state induction and retrieval-practice followed very briefly after initial learning. Given that both the previous study of hydrocortisone effects on RIF and the present study used longer delays between learning and retrieval-practice, the possibility that stress effects on retrieval-practice eliminate RIF only relatively briefly after learning is discussed.

Induced forgetting and reduced confidence in our personal past? The consequences of selectively retrieving emotional autobiographical memories

People build their sense of self, in part, through their memories of their personal past. What is striking about these personal memories is that, in many instances, they are inaccurate, yet confidently held. Most researchers assume that confidence ratings are based, in large part, on the memory's mnemonic features. That is, the more vivid or detailed the memory, the higher the confidence people have in its accuracy. However, we explore a heretofore underappreciated source on which confidence ratings may be based: the accessibility of memories as a result of selective retrieval. To explore this possibility, we use Anderson, Bjork, and Bjork's retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigm with emotional (positive and negative) autobiographical memories. We found the standard RIF effect for memory recall across emotional valence. That is, selective retrieval of emotional autobiographical memories induced forgetting of related, but not retrieved emotional autobiographical memories compared to the baseline. More interestingly, we found that the confidence ratings for positive memories mirrored the RIF pattern: decreased confidence for related, unpracticed autobiographical memories relative to the baseline. For negative memories, we found the opposite pattern: increased confidence for both practiced autobiographical memories and related, unpracticed autobiographical memories. We discuss these results in terms of accessibility, the diverging mnemonic consequences of selectively retrieving positive and negative autobiographical memories and personal identity.

Retrieval-induced forgetting of arithmetic facts across cultures

Retrieving a single-digit multiplication fact (3×4 =12) can slow response time (RT) for the corresponding addition fact (3+4=7). The present experiment investigated effects of problem type (i.e., tie addition problems such as 3+3 vs. non-ties such as 3+4) and cultural background on this retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) phenomenon in young adults. Canadians answering in English (n=36), Chinese adults answering in English (n=36), and Chinese answering in Chinese (n=36) received four blocks of multiplication practice and then two blocks of the addition counterparts and control additions. Tie addition problems presented a robust RIF effect that did not differ between groups, but only the Canadian group showed RIF for non-ties and only for small non-ties with sum≤10 (3+4). The Chinese groups' RIF effect for addition ties, but not small non-ties, converges with recent evidence that ties are solved by direct memory retrieval whereas small non-ties may be solved by highly efficient procedural processes in skilled performers.

Exploration of the relationships between retrieval-induced forgetting effects with open-ended versus closed-ended creative problem solving

Reduced cognitive inhibition has been proposed to be a characteristic of creative individuals that allows them to attend to wide-ranging information and fosters remote associations. However, empirical findings regarding the relationship between cognitive inhibition and creativity remain inconclusive. The present study applies a selective attention paradigm on internal stimuli to assess cognitive inhibition. The study also differentiates open-ended and closed-ended creative problem solving as distinct indices to measure creative potentials. How cognitive inhibition correlates with different creativity measures is then explored. Experiment 1 recruited participants who performed well on the Chinese version of the Creative Thinking Test (an open-ended, divergent thinking test) and Wason's 2-4-6 problem (a closed-ended, creative problem-solving task) to perform the retrieval-induced-forgetting (RIF) task. Compared to controls, divergent thinkers showed no RIF effects while creative problem solvers did. Experiment 2 inspected individual performance on the three tasks. The results showed that, while participants with lower inhibition performed better on the divergent thinking test, performance on the creative problem-solving task was not related to RIF. Indices of divergent thinking significantly and negatively predicted extent of cognitive inhibition. These results suggest that reduced cognitive inhibition might not be a general mechanism for different kinds of creativity.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in recall: Competitor interference revisited.

Participants studied category-exemplar pairs (FRUIT Cherry, FRUIT Grape) and then practiced some of the items (Cherry). In Experiment 1, practice that involved retrieving the item from memory suppressed recall of related items (Grape), a finding known as the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect. In Experiment 2, practice that involved studying the item without retrieval produced no RIF effect. Both retrieval and nonretrieval practice facilitated the subsequent recall of practiced items (Cherry). The dissociation between "strengthening" of practiced items and forgetting of related items is thought to be evidence that RIF is the result of inhibition during earlier retrieval attempts rather than interference from competing memories at retrieval. However, simulations of the SAM-REM model show that competitor interference can account for this dissociation. Experiments 3-6 supported the predictions of the model by demonstrating that nonretrieval practice can produce the RIF effect under conditions that emphasize context encoding or increase the number of competitors.