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Extinction Training During the Reconsolidation Window Prevents Recovery of Fear

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Inhibition-induced forgetting: when more control leads to less memory.

Yu-Chin Chiu¹, Tobias Egner²

¹Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University chiu.yuchin@duke.edu.

Psychological Science

|November 16, 2014

Summary

Inhibiting responses impairs memory for encountered stimuli, a phenomenon termed inhibition-induced forgetting. This occurs because cognitive control during response inhibition diverts attention away from memory encoding.

Keywords:

attention cognitive control memory response inhibition

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Executive Functions Research

Background:

Response inhibition is a critical executive function, yet its relationship with other cognitive processes like memory remains unclear.
Understanding how inhibiting responses impacts memory encoding is crucial for a comprehensive model of cognitive control.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of response inhibition on incidental memory formation.
To explore the underlying cognitive mechanisms responsible for inhibition-induced forgetting.

Main Methods:

Utilized go/no-go and stop-signal tasks to assess inhibitory control.
Employed surprise recognition memory tasks to measure memory performance for previously presented stimuli.
Incorporated a dot-probe task to examine attentional resource allocation during response inhibition.

Main Results:

Memory recall was significantly impaired for stimuli encountered during no-go and stop trials compared to go trials.
Inhibition-induced forgetting was not explained by stimulus-response congruency.
Reduced probe detection during no-go trials indicated attentional resource shunting away from stimulus processing.

Conclusions:

Response inhibition leads to 'inhibition-induced forgetting,' impairing memory for stimuli associated with inhibited responses.
This forgetting is attributed to the reallocation of attentional resources from stimulus encoding to action control during inhibition.