Intentional inhibition in memory and hallucinations: Directed forgetting and updating.

Hallucinations have been recently associated with inhibitory deficits in memory. In this study, the authors investigated whether hallucinations were related to difficulties to inhibit irrelevant information from episodic memory (Experiment 1) and working memory (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a directed forgetting task was used. This task measures participants' ability to intentionally forget some recently learned material, when instructions indicate that it is no longer relevant. In Experiment 2, an updating task was used. This task requires participants to intentionally suppress irrelevant information from working memory. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia with hallucinations presented inhibitory deficits in the directed forgetting task and an increase in the number of intrusions in the updating task, compared to patients without hallucinations and healthy controls. No correlations were found between indices of inhibition and other general, negative or positive symptoms. These findings support the existence of an association between intentional inhibition in memory and hallucinations, and they suggest that problems to suppress memory representations can underlie hallucinations in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering Can Cause Inhibition: Retrieval-Induced Inhibition as Cue Independent Process.

Previous experiments have mostly relied on recall as a dependent measure to assess whether retrieval of information from memory causes inhibition of related information. This study aimed to measure this inhibition in a more direct way. In Experiment 1, it was shown that repeated retrieval of exemplars from a category resulted in longer recognition latencies to nonretrieved exemplars from that same category, compared with recognition latencies to control exemplars. Experiment 2 obtained the same pattern of results using a lexical decision task. This was the 1st time that retrieval-induced forgetting was demonstrated on an implicit test of memory. To exclude noninhibitory explanations of the data, the exemplars were presented in both experiments without their categories as cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intentional forgetting as a facilitator for recalling new product attributes.

When market changes alter what product attributes are deemed important, consumers may intentionally try to forget old product information in an attempt to remember new product information. In Experiment 1, the authors demonstrated that intentional forgetting of this nature temporarily inhibits retrieval of old product information and leads to a benefit to memory for new product information. The results show that, after a short delay, benefits continue in the absence of costs, which is supportive of a multiple-process account of intentional forgetting. Experiment 2 extends these effects using an advertising message to stimulate forgetting. Across both experiments, results also show that brand preference is based on learning of new attribute information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processes of successful intentional forgetting.

Presents a framework, based on directed forgetting and social judgment research, for understanding compliance with overt instructions to disregard particular information. The success of intentional forgetting depends on how one originally encoded the to-be-forgotten information, the scope of the forget instruction, and the type of retrieval task done later. Memory-based processes of segregation and retrieval inhibition can lead to successful forgetting when Ss may forget all of the prior information. However, they are insufficient when Ss must forget only part of it. In this case, one "forgets" (i.e., limits expression of forget-cued information) by altering one's decision processes later. Successful intentional forgetting occurs only when one intentionally retrieves information from a particular learning episode, not when the task does not expressly require this (e.g., implicit memory tasks). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oh, honey, I already forgot that: Strategic control of directed forgetting in older and younger adults.

Two experiments investigated list-method directed forgetting with older and younger adults. Using standard directed forgetting instructions, significant forgetting was obtained with younger but not older adults. However, in Experiment 1 older adults showed forgetting with an experimenter-provided strategy that induced a mental context change--specifically, engaging in diversionary thought. Experiment 2 showed that age-related differences in directed forgetting occurred because older adults were less likely than younger adults to initiate a strategy to attempt to forget. When the instructions were revised to downplay their concerns about memory, older adults engaged in effective forgetting strategies and showed significant directed forgetting comparable in magnitude to younger adults. The results highlight the importance of strategic processes in directed forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brain-potential evidence for the time course of access to biographical facts and names of familiar persons.

On seeing familiar persons, biographical (semantic) information is typically retrieved faster and more accurately than name information. Serial stage models explain this pattern by suggesting that access to the name follows the retrieval of semantic information. in contrast, interactive activation and competition (IAC) models hold that both processes start together but name retrieval is slower because of structural peculiarities. With a 2-choice go/no-go procedure based on a semantic and a name-related classification, the authors tested differential predictions of the 2 alternative models for reaction times (RTs) and lateralized readiness potentials (LRP). Both LRP (Experiment 1) and RT (Experiment 2) results are in line with IAC models of face identification and naming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task-set switching and long-term memory retrieval.

The authors tested the hypothesis of a close relationship between the intentional component of task-set switching ("advance reconfiguration;" R. D. Rogers & S. Monsell, 1995) and long-term memory (LTM) retrieval. Consistent with this hypothesis, switch costs are reported to be larger when the switched-to task involves high retrieval demands (i.e., retrieval of episodic information) than when it involves low retrieval demands (i.e., retrieval of semantic information). In contrast, switch costs were not affected by a primary-task difficulty manipulation unrelated to intentional retrieval demands (Experiment 2). Also, the retrieval-demand effect on switch costs was eliminated when time for advanced preparation or task cues explicitly specifying the task rules were provided (Experiment 3). Overall, results were consistent with the hypothesis that the intentional switch-cost component reflects the time demands of retrieving appropriate task rules from LTM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visuospatial cues for reinstating mental models in working memory during interrupted reading.

Reading involves constructing a mental representation in long-term working memory of the world described by the text. Disrupting short-term working memory can interfere with the maintenance of mental models (sets of retrieval cues) needed to access these representations, producing detrimental effects on reading time. In two experiments, subjects read passages that included pairs of coreferential sentences interrupted by unrelated text. As in previous research, reading times increased for the first sentence after the interruption, likely reflecting a reinstatement process for mental models in working memory. In the present research, pictures were provided as visuospatial cues to aid the reinstatement process. The interruption effect was found to be smaller with pictures related to the passages than with unrelated pictures (Experiment 1) or titles (Experiment 2); however, both of these effects occurred only for slow readers. The authors hypothesize that slow readers take the time needed to integrate visuospatial information into their mental models, providing more resilient access to long-term working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of retrieval practice in directed forgetting.

Three experiments tested the possibility that retrieval-induced forgetting is responsible for directed forgetting with the list method. In Experiments 1 and 2, additional List 2 retrieval practice was given to determine whether this would increase directed forgetting. In Experiment 1 all items came from a single category, and in Experiment 2 unrelated words were used. In Experiment 3 additional List 2 study accompanied List 2 retrieval practice. There was no evidence that List 2 retrieval practice, with or without additional List 2 study, affected the magnitude of directed forgetting. It was argued that retrieval-induced forgetting could not account for these results. Accounts with greater viability include retrieval strategy disruption and a modified version of the dissociation hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trade-offs between gaze and working memory use.

Eye movements during natural tasks suggest that observers do not use working memory to capacity but instead use eye movements to acquire relevant information immediately before needed. Results here however, show that this strategy is sensitive to memory load and to observers' expectations about what information will be relevant. Depending upon the predictability of what object features would be needed in a brick sorting task, subjects spontaneously modulated the order in which they sampled and stored visual information using working memory more when the task was predictable and reverting to a just-in-time strategy when the task was unpredictable and the memory load was higher. This self organization was evidenced by subjects' sequence of eye movements and also their sorting decisions following missed feature changes. These results reveal that attentional selection, fixations, and use of working memory reflect a dynamic optimization with respect to a set of constraints, such as task predictablity and memory load. They also reveal that change blindness depends critically on the local task context, by virtue of its influence on the information selected for storage in working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On recollections lost: When practice makes imperfect.

Recent research has demonstrated that the act of remembering can prompt forgetting or, more specifically, the inhibition of specific items in memory (M. C. Anderson & B. A. Spellman, 1995). This line of inquiry was extended through an investigation of the process and consequences of retrieval-induced forgetting in social cognition. Across 3 studies, the findings clarify several unresolved issues in the psychology of forgetting. First, it was demonstrated that retrieval-induced forgetting extends to issues in social cognition (Experiment 1). Second, forgetting can be elicited even in task contexts in which perceivers are highly motivated to remember the presented material (Experiment 2). Third, forgetting is not moderated by the amount of retrieval practice that perceivers experience (Experiment 3). These findings are considered in the context of recent treatments of cognitive inhibition and goal-directed forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of advance expectancies in person memory.

Behaviors inconsistent with our general impression of another person are remembered better than are consistent behaviors, especially when only a few inconsistent behaviors occur (the set-size effect). In most previous studies of person memory, the behaviors to be remembered were accompanied by explicit trait information. Our studies showed that set-size effects also occurred when trait information was delayed or absent (Experiment 1) or when it contradicted the behavioral information (Experiment 2), but not when subjects were discouraged from forming a unitary impression (Experiment 3). These data do not support the hypothesis that the recall advantage for inconsistent behaviors depends on the presence of an advance expectancy, nor do they support a list-learning account of person memory. The results are most compatible with a model in which the perceiver spontaneously generates a behavior-based impression that is functionally equivalent to an expectancy-based impression in guiding memory for behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating Three Criteria for Establishing Cue-Search Hierarchies in Inferential Judgment.

The authors identify and provide an integration of 3 criteria for establishing cue-search hierarchies in inferential judgment. Cues can be ranked by information value according to expected information gain (Bayesian criterion), cue-outcome correlation (correlational criterion), or ecological validity (accuracy criterion). All criteria significantly predicted information acquisition behavior; however, in 3 experiments, the most successful predictor was the correlational criterion (followed by the Bayesian). Although participants showed sensitivity to task constraints, searching for less information when it was more expensive (Experiment 1) and when under time constraints (Experiment 2), concomitant changes in the relative frequency of acquisition of cues with different information values were not observed. A rational analysis illustrates why such changes in the frequency of acquisition would be beneficial, and reasons for the failure to observe such behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in memory in relation to availability and accessibility of knowledge-based schemas.

Three experiments investigated whether, over adulthood, the use of schemas to process and remember new information increases (developmental shift hypothesis), decreases (production deficiency hypothesis) or remains constant (age-invariance hypothesis). Effects of schema access were studied by having young, middle-aged, and old music experts and nonexperts recall information that was relevant or irrelevant to music (Experiment 1) and by comparing young and old participants' memory for prose passages when they knew or did not know the subject of the passage (Experiments 2 and 3). In each case, schema access facilitated memory equally across age levels, supporting the age-invariance hypothesis and implying that the basic structures and operations of memory do not necessarily change with age. Possible limits on the independence of age and schema utilization were considered in relation to the conditions under which each of the two alternative hypotheses might hold. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships among working memory, math anxiety, and performance.

Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrated smaller working memory spans, especially when assessed with a computation-based span task. This reduced working memory capacity led to a pronounced increase in reaction time and errors when mental addition was performed concurrently with a memory load task. The effects of the reduction also generalized to a working memory-intensive transformation task. Overall, the results demonstrated that an individual difference variable, math anxiety, affects on-line performance in math-related tasks and that this effect is a transitory disruption of working memory. The authors consider a possible mechanism underlying this effect—disruption of central executive processes—and suggest that individual difference variables like math anxiety deserve greater empirical attention, especially on assessments of working memory capacity and functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preserved Spatial Memory Over Brief Intervals in Older Adults.

Two studies compared young and older adults' memory for location information after brief intervals. Experiment 1 found that accuracy of intentional spatial memory for individual locations was similar in young and older participants for set sizes of 3 and 6. Both groups also encoded individual locations in relation to the larger configuration of locations. Experiment 2 showed that like young adults, older adults' latency to respond to a test probe in a letter working memory task was negatively influenced by spatial information that was irrelevant to the task. This interference effect indicated preserved incidental memory for spatial information in older adults. Together, these data suggest that initial encoding of spatial information for relatively small numbers of items is largely preserved in healthy older adults and that representations of spatial information persist over short intervals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are you sure you forgot? Feeling of knowing in directed forgetting.

One significant issue in metamemory is how variables increasing memorability affect metamemory. Previous research has produced inconsistent results. The effect of directed forgetting on the magnitude and accuracy of feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments was investigated. Participants were presented with word pairs, some to be remembered and some to be forgotten, and then were asked to recall all target words regardless of initial instructions. For unrecalled items, they were asked to give FOK judgments about performance in a future memory task: a cued stem-completion task (Experiment 1) or a recognition test (Experiment 2). This encoding manipulation increased both the memory performance and the magnitude of FOK judgments. However, no such effect on the accuracy of FOK judgments was observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval processes in transactive memory systems.

Two experiments examined retrieval processes in transactive memory systems (D. M. Wegner, 1987). In Experiment 1, intimate couples who worked face to face performed better on a knowledge-pooling task than strangers who worked face to face and better than intimate couples who worked via a computer conferencing system. Additional analyses indicated that intimate couples when interacting face to face were better able to determine which partner was correct on questions that only 1 member knew the answer to prior to discussion. In Experiment 2, intimate couples scored significantly better on the knowledge task when they had access to either nonverbal or paralinguistic communication cues than when they had access to neither. Taken together, the results indicate that both nonverbal and paralinguistic communication play an important role in the retrieval of knowledge in transactive memory systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting between, but not within, dissociative personality states.

To investigate amnesia between identities in dissociative identity disorder (DID), the authors assessed explicit and implicit memory performance on a directed-forgetting task in 12 DID patients who switched from one state to an "amnesic" state between presentation and memory testing. DID patients were instructed either to remember or to forget neutral and emotional words. Besides an overall decrease in explicit memory, patients demonstrated selective forgetting of to-be-forgotten, but not of to-be-remembered words in the amnesic state. Patients did not exhibit any directed forgetting within the same state. Implicit memory was fully preserved across states. Independent of state, patients recalled more emotional than neutral information. These results may extend the conceptualization of memory processes in DID, suggesting an important role for retrieval inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Origins of the Task Mixing Cost in the Cuing Task-Switching Paradigm.

Poorer performance in conditions involving task repetition within blocks of mixed tasks relative to task repetition within blocks of single task is called mixing cost (MC). In 2 experiments exploring 2 hypotheses regarding the origins of MC, participants either switched between cued shape and color tasks, or they performed them as single tasks. Experiment 1 supported the hypothesis that mixed-tasks trials require the resolution of task ambiguity by showing that MC existed only with ambiguous stimuli that afforded both tasks and not with unambiguous stimuli affording only 1 task. Experiment 2 failed to support the hypothesis that holding multiple task sets in working memory (WM) generates MC by showing that systematic manipulation of the number of stimulus-response rules in WM did not affect MC. The results emphasize the role of competition management between task sets during task control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)