Recognition-induced forgetting of schematically related pictures

Recognition-induced forgetting is the category-specific forgetting of pictures that occurs when a subset of a category of pictures is recognized, leading to forgetting of the remaining pictures. We have previously shown that recognition-induced forgetting does not operate over categories created by temporal relationships, suggesting that this effect does not operate over episodic memory representations. Here we systematically tested whether schematically related categories of pictures are immune to recognition-induced forgetting. We found that sufficiently weak schematically related memories are vulnerable to recognition-induced forgetting. These results offer an alternative interpretation for evidence that recognition-induced forgetting does not operate over episodic memory representations. Evidence that the strength of schematic grouping modulates forgetting supports a model of recognition-induced forgetting in which the key determinant of forgetting is moderate activation. This is the first demonstration that recognition-induced forgetting operates over perceptually distinct objects, demonstrating the ubiquity of such forgetting.