Inhibition does not always cause emotional devaluation: no evidence for retrieval-induced devaluation

Retrieval practice for some memory items from a given category can impair subsequent retrieval of unpracticed items from the same category (retrieval-induced forgetting, RIF). Inhibition of these items has been invoked as an explanation, and inhibition has also been proposed to cause stimulus devaluation. The present experiments investigated whether a similar devaluation effect can be observed in a RIF experiment for the unpracticed and presumably inhibited items. We report two experiments using the RIF paradigm, and both experiments yielded a RIF effect. At the same time, affective ratings of the very same items did not show signs of devaluation. These results run counter the idea that both RIF and devaluation effects are caused by a (similar) inhibitory mechanism, or at least they suggest differences between the mechanisms involved in external perceptual and internal memory selection.