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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories

Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories

Published on: November 14, 2018

When intended remembering leads to unintended forgetting.

Benjamin C Storm¹, Elizabeth L Bjork, Robert A Bjork

¹Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. storm@ucla.edu

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)

|July 10, 2007

Summary

Instructing participants to remember items, rather than forget them, increased susceptibility to retrieval-induced forgetting. This suggests memory inhibition is influenced by retrieval goals, impacting forgetting dynamics.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Memory Research

Background:

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is a phenomenon where recalling specific information impairs subsequent memory for related, non-practiced information.
The underlying mechanisms of RIF, particularly the role of inhibition, are not fully understood.
Existing theories suggest that interference during retrieval plays a key role in RIF.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how memory retrieval goals influence susceptibility to retrieval-induced forgetting.
To test the prediction that items interfering most with retrieval practice are most susceptible to inhibition.
To clarify the role of inhibitory processes in memory dynamics.

Main Methods:

Participants were presented with lists of items.
Participants were instructed to either remember or forget specific lists.
The susceptibility of items from both conditions to retrieval-induced forgetting was measured.

Main Results:

Items from lists participants were instructed to remember showed significantly more retrieval-induced forgetting.
Items from lists participants were instructed to forget showed less retrieval-induced forgetting.
This finding supports the inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting.

Conclusions:

Memory retrieval goals directly impact the degree of retrieval-induced forgetting.
Inhibitory processes in memory are modulated by intentional forgetting instructions.
Understanding these dynamics is crucial for memory research and potential memory interventions.