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Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

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Inhibition and interference in the think/no-think task.

Mihály Racsmány¹, Martin A Conway, Attila Keresztes

¹Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Egry Ju 1, Budapest 1111, Hungary. racsmany@cogsci.bme.hu

Memory & Cognition

|October 12, 2011

Summary

The think/no-think (TNT) procedure reveals that intentionally not thinking about information can impair recall, while thinking of alternative information may cause interference. These memory strategies impact retrieval differently.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Memory Research

Background:

The think/no-think (TNT) procedure is a paradigm used to study memory control.
Understanding how intentional forgetting and memory substitution affect recall is crucial for cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of 'no-think' and 'substitute' instructions on cued recall performance.
To differentiate the cognitive mechanisms underlying intentional forgetting and memory substitution.

Main Methods:

Five experiments employed the TNT procedure with paired associates (A-B).
Participants were instructed to either 'think' or 'no-think' about studied items when presented with cues.
In some experiments, participants were instructed to think of a substitute item instead of the target item.

Main Results:

The 'no-think' instruction impaired recall when cued with the initial item (A), but enhanced recall when cued with the second item (B), suggesting backward priming.
Replacing 'no-think' with a 'substitute' instruction led to forgetting of the target item (B) but did not show the backward priming effect for the initial item (A).

Conclusions:

The 'no-think' instruction appears to involve inhibitory processes for memory suppression.
Thinking of a substitute item, conversely, seems to involve interference rather than inhibition.
These findings highlight distinct neural and cognitive mechanisms for different memory control strategies.