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In two experiments, we examined the competition dependence of retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in motor memory. Participants learned sequential finger movements as responses to letter stimuli. The learning phase comprised two parts. In both parts, half of the motor sequences were to be executed at one of two locations (the left or right side of a keyboard) by pressing the corresponding response keys. Retrieval practice of half of the motor sequences at one location induced forgetting of the nonpracticed motor sequences at that location. However, RIF was prevented in Experiment 1 when retrieval practice took place before the nonpracticed items had even been encoded. In Experiment 2, RIF was prevented by intentionally forgetting the nonpracticed motor sequences prior to retrieval practice. These results suggest that precluding competition by related items during retrieval practice precluded them from being affected by RIF. The present findings support an inhibitory account and speak against the alternative assumptions that associative blocking or a mental context change causes RIF.
Selective retrieval of some studied items can both impair and improve recall of the other items. This study examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) for the two effects of memory retrieval. Participants studied an item list consisting of predefined target and nontarget items. After study of the list, half of the participants performed an imagination task supposed to induce a change in mental context, whereas the other half performed a counting task which does not induce such context change. Following presentation of a second list, memory for the original list's target items was tested, either with or without preceding retrieval of the list's nontarget items. Consistent with previous work, preceding nontarget retrieval impaired target recall in the absence of the context change, but improved target recall in its presence. In particular, there was a positive relationship between WMC and the beneficial, but not the detrimental effect of memory retrieval. On the basis of the view that the beneficial effect of memory retrieval reflects context-reactivation processes, the results indicate that individuals with higher WMC are better able to capitalise on retrieval-induced context reactivation than individuals with lower WMC.
Based on numerous studies showing that testing studied material can improve long-term retention more than restudying the same material, it is often suggested that the number of tests in education should be increased to enhance knowledge acquisition. However, testing in real-life educational settings often entails a high degree of extrinsic motivation of learners due to the common practice of placing important consequences on the outcome of a test. Such an effect on the motivation of learners may undermine the beneficial effects of testing on long-term memory because it has been shown that extrinsic motivation can reduce the quality of learning. To examine this issue, participants learned foreign language vocabulary words, followed by an immediate test in which one-third of the words were tested and one-third restudied. To manipulate extrinsic motivation during immediate testing, participants received either monetary reward contingent on test performance or no reward. After 1 week, memory for all words was tested. In the immediate test, reward reduced correct recall and increased commission errors, indicating that reward reduced the number of items that can benefit from successful retrieval. The results in the delayed test revealed that reward additionally reduced the gain received from successful retrieval because memory for initially successfully retrieved words was lower in the reward condition. However, testing was still more effective than restudying under reward conditions because reward undermined long-term memory for concurrently restudied material as well. These findings indicate that providing performance–contingent reward in a test can undermine long-term knowledge acquisition.
Interim tests of previously studied information can potentiate subsequent learning of new information, in part, because retrieval-based processes help to reduce proactive interference from previously learned information. We hypothesized that an effect similar to this forward testing effect would also occur when making judgments of (prior) learning (JOLs). Previous research showed that making JOLs likely prompts covert retrieval attempts and thereby enhances memory, specifically when providing only parts of previously studied information. This study examined the forward effect of different types of JOLs (i.e., with complete or partial prior study information available) on subsequent learning of new materials, compared to restudy and retrieval practice. In a between-subjects design, participants (N = 161) consecutively studied five lists of 20 words with the aim to recall as many of them on a final cumulative recall test. After the presentation of each of the first four lists, participants either restudied the list, made JOLs with complete words, made JOLs with word stems, or they were tested on word stems. Compared to restudy, practicing retrieval and making JOLs with word stems, but not JOLs with complete words, facilitated the List-5 interim recall performance and attenuated the number of intrusions from prior lists. The findings suggest that, similar to overt retrieval, making JOLs with incomplete information can enhance new learning to the extent that it elicits covert retrieval attempts.
Providing a subset of previously studied information as a retrieval cue can impair memory for the remaining information. Previous work with adults has shown that such part-list cuing impairment (PLCI) can be transient or lasting, depending on study condition. Here, we investigated the persistence of PLCI in children. Three age groups (7- and 8-year-olds, 9- and 10-year-olds, and 12- to 14-year-olds) learned a list of items, either through a single study trial (1-study condition) or through two study-test cycles (2-study-test condition). Subsequently, two recall tests were administered, with part-list cues being provided in the first (critical) test but not in the second (final) test. Of primary interest was whether the detrimental effect of part-list cuing induced in the critical test would persist to the uncued final test. In 12- to 14-year-olds, we found an adult-like pattern of results, with lasting impairment in the 1-study condition but transient impairment in the 2-study-test condition. In contrast, in the two younger age groups, we found PLCI to be lasting in both study conditions, suggesting age differences in the persistence of PLCI. The results are discussed in light of a recently proposed two-mechanism account of PLCI that attributes lasting impairment to retrieval inhibition and transient impairment to strategy disruption. Following this account, the results suggest that whereas 12- to 14-year-olds’ PLCI was caused by (lasting) retrieval inhibition in the 1-study condition and by (transient) strategy disruption in the 2-study-test condition, 7- and 8-year-olds’ and 9- and 10-year-olds’ PLCI was caused by (lasting) retrieval inhibition in both study conditions.
Providing a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can both impair and improve recall of the remaining items. Here, we investigated the development of these two opposing effects of such part-list cuing in children. Using listwise directed forgetting to manipulate study context access, three child age groups (7–8, 9–11, and 13–14 years) and young adults studied a list of items and, after study, were asked to either forget or continue remembering the list. After presentation of a second list, participants were tested on predefined target items from the original list in either the presence or absence of the list’s remaining (nontarget) items serving as retrieval cues. Results revealed that part-list cuing impaired recall of to-be-remembered target items regardless of age. In contrast, part-list cuing improved recall of to-be-forgotten target items in the adult and the oldest child groups but not in the two younger child groups. This finding suggests a developmental dissociation between the two opposing effects of part-list cuing, indicating that the beneficial effect develops later than the detrimental effect. In particular, following the view that the beneficial effect of part-list cuing arises from reactivation of the study context, the results suggest that elementary school children have difficulty in capitalizing on context reactivation.
When Remembering Causes Forgetting: Electrophysiological Correlates of Retrieval-Induced Forgetting
(2007)
People tend to forget information that is related to memories they are actively trying to retrieve. On the basis of results from behavioral studies, such retrieval-induced forgetting is held to result from inhibitory control processes that are recruited to attenuate interference caused by competing memory traces. Employing electrophysiological measures of brain activity, the present study examined the neural correlates of these inhibitory processes as they operate. The results demonstrate that sustained prefrontal event-related potentials were 1) related to whether or not selective memory retrieval was required during reprocessing of previously studied words and 2) predictive of individual differences in the amount of forgetting observed in an ensuing recall test. The present findings give support to an inhibitory control account of retrieval-induced forgetting and are in accord with the view that prefrontal regions play an important role in the selection and maintenance of relevant memory representations at the expense of those currently irrelevant.
Retrieving a target item from episodic memory typically enhances later memory for the retrieved item but causes forgetting of competing irrelevant memories. This finding is termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) and is assumed to be the consequence of an inhibitory mechanism resolving retrieval competition. In the present study, we examined brain oscillatory processes related to RIF, as induced by competitive memory retrieval. Contrasting a competitive with a noncompetitive retrieval condition, we found a stronger increase in early evoked theta (4–7 Hz) activity, which specifically predicted RIF, but not retrieval-induced enhancement. Within the cognitive framework of RIF, these findings suggest that theta oscillations reflect arising interference and its resolution during competitive retrieval in episodic memory.
In the present study, the electrophysiological correlates of perceiving shortly presented visual stimuli are examined. In particular, we investigated the differences in the prestimulus EEG between subjects who were able to discriminate between four shortly presented stimuli (Perceivers) and subjects who were not (Non-Perceivers). Additionally, we investigated the differences between the subjects perceived and unperceived trials. The results show that Perceivers exhibited lower prestimulus alpha power than Non-Perceivers. Analysis of the prestimulus EEG between perceived and unperceived trials revealed that the perception of a stimulus is related to low phase coupling in the alpha frequency range (8–12 Hz) and high phase coupling in the beta and gamma frequency range (20–45 Hz). Single trial analyses showed that perception performance can be predicted by phase coupling in the alpha, beta and gamma frequency range. The findings indicate that synchronous oscillations in the alpha frequency band inhibit the perception of shortly presented stimuli whereas synchrony in higher frequency ranges (> 20 Hz) enhances visual perception. We conclude that alpha, beta and gamma oscillations indicate the attentional state of a subject and thus are able to predict perception performance on a single trial basis.
Numerous studies from the past five decades have shown that selective retrieval of some studied items can impair recall of other items. This chapter reviews more recent work, in which it is demonstrated that selective memory retrieval has two faces and that it can both impair and improve recall of other items. In this recent work, participants' access to study context during selective retrieval was experimentally manipulated and it was examined whether such manipulation influences the effects of selective retrieval. Access to study context was manipulated using listwise directed forgetting, context-dependent forgetting and time-dependent forgetting. The results consistently showed that selective retrieval impairs recall of other memories if access to study context during retrieval is largely maintained, but that selective retrieval can improve recall if study context access is impaired. The findings are explained by a two-factor account, which claims that, in general, selective retrieval does not only trigger inhibition and blocking but also triggers context reactivation processes. The proposal is that primarily inhibition and blocking operate when study context access during selective retrieval is largely maintained, whereas primarily context reactivation processes operate when study context access is impaired. Current findings on the two faces of selective retrieval are well consistent with this theoretical view.