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Related Experiment Videos

Intentional forgetting can increase, not decrease, residual influences of to-be-forgotten information.

Elizabeth Ligon Bjork1, Robert A Bjork

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095-1563, USA. elbjork@psych.ucla.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|August 20, 2003
PubMed
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Intentionally forgotten information is still strong in memory but harder to recall. Forgetting nonfamous names increases false fame attributions, highlighting retrieval inhibition effects.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Memory Studies

Background:

  • Intentionally forgotten information is retained in memory with unimpaired recognition and priming, but impaired recall.
  • This suggests a dissociation between memory strength and accessibility.
  • The impact of this memory dissociation on subsequent judgments remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether intentionally forgotten information influences subsequent judgments more than intentionally remembered information.
  • To examine the role of retrieval inhibition in memory and judgment.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted involving participants instructed to either forget or remember nonfamous names.
  • Subsequent judgments, specifically false attributions of fame, were measured.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Recognition and priming measures were used to assess memory strength.

    • Main Results:

    • Participants instructed to forget nonfamous names showed a higher likelihood of falsely attributing fame to those names compared to participants instructed to remember them.
    • This indicates that impaired access to forgotten information can still influence judgments.

    Conclusions:

    • Retrieval inhibition is a significant factor in how memory recollection and priming interact to affect judgment.
    • Instructions to forget, suppress, or disregard information may have unintended consequences in legal and social contexts.