@article{AslanBaeumlPastoetter2007, author = {Aslan, Alp and B{\"a}uml, Karl-Heinz and Past{\"o}tter, Bernhard}, title = {No Inhibitory Deficit in Older Adults' Episodic Memory}, series = {Psychological Science}, volume = {18}, journal = {Psychological Science}, number = {1}, pages = {72 -- 78}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Selectively retrieving a subset of previously studied material can cause forgetting of the unpracticed material. Such retrieval-induced forgetting is attributed to an inhibitory mechanism recruited to resolve interference among competing items. According to the inhibition-deficit hypothesis, older people experience a specific decline in inhibitory function and thus should show reduced retrieval-induced forgetting. However, the results of the two experiments reported here show the same amount of retrieval-induced forgetting in younger and older adults. These results indicate that retrieval inhibition is intact in older adults' episodic recall. The findings suggest that the common view of a general inhibitory deficit in older adults needs to be updated and that older adults show intact inhibition in some cognitive tasks and deficient inhibition in others.}, language = {en} }