1932

Abstract

Over the past century, psychologists have discussed whether forgetting might arise from active mechanisms that promote memory loss to achieve various functions, such as minimizing errors, facilitating learning, or regulating one's emotional state. The past decade has witnessed a great expansion in knowledge about the brain mechanisms underlying active forgetting in its varying forms. A core discovery concerns the role of the prefrontal cortex in exerting top-down control over mnemonic activity in the hippocampus and other brain structures, often via inhibitory control. New findings reveal that such processes not only induce forgetting of specific memories but also can suppress the operation of mnemonic processes more broadly, triggering windows of anterograde and retrograde amnesia in healthy people. Recent work extends active forgetting to nonhuman animals, presaging the development of a multilevel mechanistic account that spans the cognitive, systems, network, and even cellular levels. This work reveals how organisms adapt their memories to their cognitive and emotional goals and has implications for understanding vulnerability to psychiatric disorders.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-072720-094140
2021-01-04
2024-12-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/psych/72/1/annurev-psych-072720-094140.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-072720-094140&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abel M, Bäuml K-HT. 2017. Testing the context-change account of list-method directed forgetting: the role of retention interval. J. Mem. Lang. 92:170–82
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson MC. 2003. Rethinking interference theory: executive control and the mechanisms of forgetting. J. Mem. Lang. 49:4415–45
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Anderson MC, Bell T. 2001. Forgetting our facts: the role of inhibitory processes in the loss of propositional knowledge. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 130:544–70
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anderson MC, Bjork RA. 1994. Mechanisms of inhibition in long-term memory: a new taxonomy. Inhibitory Processes in Attention, Memory and Language D Dagenbach, T Carr 265–326 San Diego, CA: Academic
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Anderson MC, Bjork RA, Bjork EL 1994. Remembering can cause forgetting: retrieval dynamics in long-term memory. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 20:1063–87
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Anderson MC, Bunce JG, Barbas H 2016. Prefrontal-hippocampal pathways underlying inhibitory control over memory. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 134:145–61Review of what primate and rodent neuro-anatomy tells us about the pathways underlying memory inhibition.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Anderson MC, Green C. 2001. Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature 410:131–34
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Anderson MC, Hanslmayr S. 2014. Neural mechanisms of motivated forgetting. Trends Cogn. Sci. 18:6279–92
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Anderson MC, Huddleston E. 2011. Towards a cognitive and neurobiological model of motivated forgetting. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 58 RF Belli 53–120 New York: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Anderson MC, Levy BJ. 2007. Theoretical issues in inhibition: insights from research on human memory. Inhibition in Cognition D Gorfein, CM MacLeod 81–102 Washington, DC: Am. Psychol. Assoc.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Anderson MC, Ochsner KN, Kuhl B, Cooper J, Robertson E et al. 2004. Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science 303:5655232–35
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Anderson MC, Spellman BA. 1995. On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: memory retrieval as a model case. Psychol. Rev. 102:68–100
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Aron AR, Robbins TW, Poldrack RA 2014. Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex: one decade on. Trends Cogn. Sci. 18:4177–85
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Aron AR, Verbruggen F. 2008. Stop the presses: dissociating a selective from a global mechanism for stopping. Psychol. Sci. 19:111146–53
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Aslan A, Bäuml KH. 2011. Individual differences in working memory capacity predict retrieval-induced forgetting. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 37:1264–69
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Badre D, Wagner AD. 2007. Left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the cognitive control of memory. Neuropsychologia 45:132883–901
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Bajo MT, Gomez-Ariza CJ, Fernandez A, Marful A 2006. Retrieval-induced forgetting in perceptually driven memory tests. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 32:51185–94
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Bari A, Robbins TW. 2013. Inhibition and impulsivity: behavioral and neural basis of response control. Prog. Neurobiol. 108:44–79
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Basden BH, Basden DR, Gargano GJ 1993. Directed forgetting in implicit and explicit memory tests: a comparison of methods. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. 19:3603–16
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Bäuml K-H, Hanslmayr S, Pastötter B, Klimesch W 2008. Oscillatory correlates of intentional updating in episodic memory. Neuroimage 41:2596–604
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Bäuml K-H, Pastötter B, Hanslmayr S 2010. Binding and inhibition in episodic memory—cognitive, emotional, and neural processes. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 34:71047–54
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Bäuml K-HT, Kliegl O. 2017. Retrieval-induced remembering and forgetting. Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference JH Byrne 27–51 San Diego, CA: Academic
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Bäuml K-HT, Samenieh A. 2012. Selective memory retrieval can impair and improve retrieval of other memories. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 38:2488–94
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Bekinschtein P, Weisstaub NV, Gallo F, Renner M, Anderson MC 2018. A retrieval-specific mechanism of adaptive forgetting in the mammalian brain. Nat. Commun. 9:11–12A robust, well-developed rodent model of active forgetting demonstrating causal role of the prefrontal cortex.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Benoit RG, Anderson MC. 2012. Opposing mechanisms support the voluntary forgetting of unwanted memories. Neuron 76:2450–60
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Benoit RG, Davies DJ, Anderson MC 2016. Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation. PNAS 113:52E8492–501
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Benoit RG, Hulbert JC, Huddleston E, Anderson MC 2015. Adaptive top-down suppression of hippocampal activity and the purging of intrusive memories from consciousness. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 27:196–111
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Bergström ZM, de Fockert JW, Richardson-Klavehn A 2009. ERP and behavioural evidence for direct suppression of unwanted memories. Neuroimage 48:4726–37
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Bjork EL, Bjork RA, Anderson MC 1998. Varieties of goal-directed forgetting. Intentional Forgetting: Interdisciplinary Approaches JM Golding, CM MacLeod 103–37 Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Bjork RA. 1989. Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in human memory. Varieties of Memory and Consciousness: Essays in Honour of Endel Tulving HL Roediger, FIM Craik 309–30 Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Boucher L, Palmeri TJ, Logan GD, Schall JD 2007. Inhibitory control in mind and brain: an interactive race model of countermanding saccades. Psychol. Rev. 114:2376–97
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Breuer J, Freud S 1955 (1895). Studies on hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud 2, ed. & transl. J Strachey 19–305 London: Hogarth
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Brewin CR. 2011. The nature and significance of memory disturbance in posttraumatic stress disorder. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 7:203–27
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Buckner RL, DiNicola LM. 2019. The brain's default network: updated anatomy, physiology and evolving insights. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 20:10593–608
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Campbell JID, Thompson VA. 2012. Retrieval-induced forgetting of arithmetic facts. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 38:118–129
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Castiglione A, Wagner J, Anderson M, Aron AR 2019. Preventing a thought from coming to mind elicits increased right frontal beta just as stopping action does. Cereb. Cortex 29:52160–72
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Catarino A, Küpper CS, Werner-Seidler A, Dalgleish T, Anderson MC 2015. Failing to forget: Inhibitory-control deficits compromise memory suppression in posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychol. Sci. 26:5604–16
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Cavanagh JF, Cohen MX, Allen JJB 2009. Prelude to and resolution of an error: EEG phase synchrony reveals cognitive control dynamics during action monitoring. J. Neurosci. 29:198–105
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Chan JCK, Erdman MR, Davis SD 2015. Retrieval induces forgetting, but only when nontested items compete for retrieval: implication for interference, inhibition, and context reinstatement. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 41:51298–315
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Chatham CH, Badre D. 2015. Multiple gates on working memory. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 1:23–31
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Cinel C, Cortis Mack C, Ward G 2018. Towards augmented human memory: retrieval-induced forgetting and retrieval practice in an interactive, end-of-day review. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 147:632–61
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Ciranni MA, Shimamura AP. 1999. Retrieval-induced forgetting in episodic memory. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 25:61403–14
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Coman A, Momennejad I, Drach RD, Geana A 2016. Mnemonic convergence in social networks: the emergent properties of cognition at a collective level. PNAS 113:298171–76
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Corkin S, Amaral DG, González RG, Johnson KA, Hyman BT 1997. H. M.’s medial temporal lobe lesion: findings from magnetic resonance imaging. J. Neurosci. 17:103964–79
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Davis RL, Zhong Y. 2017. The biology of forgetting—a perspective. Neuron 95:3490–503
    [Google Scholar]
  46. De Jong R, Coles MGH, Logan GD 1995. Strategies and mechanisms in nonselective and selective inhibitory motor control. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 21:498–511
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Depue BE, Burgess GC, Willcutt EG, Ruzic L, Banich MT 2010. Inhibitory control of memory retrieval and motor processing associated with the right lateral prefrontal cortex: evidence from deficits in individuals with ADHD. Neuropsychologia 48:133909–17
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Depue BE, Curran T, Banich MT 2007. Prefrontal regions orchestrate suppression of emotional memories via a two-phase process. Science 317:5835215–19
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Depue BE, Orr JM, Smolker HR, Naaz F, Banich MT 2015. The organization of right prefrontal networks reveals common mechanisms of inhibitory regulation across cognitive, emotional, and motor processes. Cereb. Cortex 26:41634–46
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Diamond A. 2013. Executive functions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64:135–68
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Diamond S, Balvin RS, Diamond FR 1963. Inhibition and Choice: A Neurobehavioral Approach to Problems of Plasticity in Behavior New York: Harper & Row
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Drew TW, McCollough AW, Vogel EK 2006. Event-related potential measures of visual working memory. Clin. EEG Neurosci. 37:4286–91
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Dulas MR, Duarte A. 2016. Age-related changes in overcoming proactive interference in associative memory: the role of PFC-mediated executive control processes at retrieval. Neuroimage 132:116–28
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Dutra CA, Beria FM, Ligório IS, Gauer G 2019. Electroencephalogram evidence for memory suppression: a systematic review. Trends Psychol 27:3601–13
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Edginton T, Rusted JM. 2003. Separate and combined effects of scopolamine and nicotine on retrieval-induced forgetting. Psychopharmacology 170:4351–57
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Eichenbaum H. 2017. Memory: organization and control. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 68:19–45Compelling case that rodent prefrontal cortex suppresses contextually irrelevant memories by its impact on hippocampus.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Engen HG, Anderson MC. 2018. Memory control: a fundamental mechanism of emotion regulation. Trends Cogn. Sci. 22:11982–95Integrates research on active forgetting with emotion regulation, arguing for a central role of forgetting.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Fawcett JM, Hulbert JC. 2020. The many faces of forgetting: toward a constructive view of forgetting in everyday life. J. Appl. Res. Mem. Cogn. 9:11–18
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Fawcett JM, Lawrence MA, Taylor TL 2016. The representational consequences of intentional forgetting: impairments to both the probability and fidelity of long-term memory. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 145:56–81
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Fawcett JM, Taylor T. 2008. Forgetting is effortful: evidence from reaction time probes in an item-method directed forgetting task. Mem. Cogn. 36:61168–81
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Fawcett JM, Taylor TL. 2010. Directed forgetting shares mechanisms with attentional withdrawal but not with stop-signal inhibition. Mem. Cogn. 38:6797–808
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Fell J, Axmacher N. 2011. The role of phase synchronization in memory processes. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 12:2105–18
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Ferreira CS, Maraver MJ, Hanslmayr S, Bajo T 2019. Theta oscillations show impaired interference detection in older adults during selective memory retrieval. Sci. Rep. 9:19977
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Ferreira CS, Marful A, Staudigl T, Bajo T, Hanslmayr S 2014. Medial prefrontal theta oscillations track the time course of interference during selective memory retrieval. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 26:4777–91
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Foster BL, Dastjerdi M, Parvizi J 2012. Neural populations in human posteromedial cortex display opposing responses during memory and numerical processing. PNAS 109:3815514–19
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Fox KCR, Foster BL, Kucyi A, Daitch AL, Parvizi J 2018. Intracranial electrophysiology of the human default network. Trends Cogn. Sci. 22:4307–24
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Fuster J. 2015. The Prefrontal Cortex Boston: Academic
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Gagnepain P, Henson RN, Anderson MC 2014. Suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influence via targeted cortical inhibition. PNAS 111:13E1310–19
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Gagnepain P, Hulbert J, Anderson MC 2017. Parallel regulation of memory and emotion supports the suppression of intrusive memories. J. Neurosci. 37:276423–41
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Glynn R, Salmon K, Low J 2019. Short- and longer-term effects of selective discussion of adolescents’ autobiographical memories. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 184:232–40
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Gómez-Ariza CJ, del Prete F, Prieto del Val L, Valle T, Bajo MT, Fernandez A 2017. Memory inhibition as a critical factor preventing creative problem solving. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 43:6986–96
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Grill-Spector K, Henson R, Martin A 2006. Repetition and the brain: neural models of stimulus-specific effects. Trends Cogn. Sci. 10:114–23
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Guo Y, Schmitz TW, Mur M, Ferreira CS, Anderson MC 2018. A supramodal role of the basal ganglia in memory and motor inhibition: meta-analytic evidence. Neuropsychologia 108:117–34
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Hanslmayr S, Pastötter B, Bäuml K-H, Gruber S, Wimber M, Klimesch W 2007. The electrophysiological dynamics of interference during the Stroop task. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 20:2215–25
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Hanslmayr S, Staudigl T, Aslan A, Bäuml K-H 2010. Theta oscillations predict the detrimental effects of memory retrieval. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 10:3329–38
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Hanslmayr S, Staudigl T, Fellner M-C 2012. Oscillatory power decreases and long-term memory: the information via desynchronization hypothesis. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 6:74
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Hardt O, Nader K, Nadel L 2013. Decay happens: the role of active forgetting in memory. Trends Cogn. Sci. 17:3111–20
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Harrington MO, Ashton JE, Sankarasubramanian S, Anderson MC, Cairney SA 2020. Losing control: Sleep deprivation impairs the suppression of unwanted thoughts. Clin. Psychol. Sci In press. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620951511
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  79. Hellerstedt R, Johansson M, Anderson MC 2016. Tracking the intrusion of unwanted memories into awareness with event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia 89:510–23
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Hertel PT, Calcaterra G. 2005. Intentional forgetting benefits from thought substitution. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 12:3484–89
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Hertel PT, Hayes JA. 2015. Distracted by cues for suppressed memories. Psychol. Sci. 26:6775–83
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Hertel PT, Maydon A, Ogilvie A, Mor N 2018. Ruminators (unlike others) fail to show suppression-induced forgetting on indirect measures of memory. Clin. Psychol. Sci. 6:6872–81
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Hulbert JC, Anderson MC. 2018. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger: psychological trauma and its relationship to enhanced memory control. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 147:121931–49
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Hulbert JC, Henson RN, Anderson MC 2016. Inducing amnesia through systemic suppression. Nat. Commun. 7:11003Demonstration that retrieval suppression broadly disrupts hippocampal functions, inducing an amnesic shadow in healthy people.
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Hulbert JC, Hirschstein Z, Brontë CAL, Broughton E 2018. Unintended side effects of a spotless mind: theory and practice. Memory 26:3306–20
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Hulbert JC, Shivde G, Anderson MC 2012. Evidence against associative blocking as a cause of cue-independent retrieval-induced forgetting. Exp. Psychol. 59:111–21
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Johansson R, Johansson M. 2020. Gaze position regulates memory accessibility during competitive memory retrieval. Cognition 197:104169
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Johansson R, Pärnamets P, Bjernestedt A, Johansson M 2018. Pupil dilation tracks the dynamics of mnemonic interference resolution. Sci. Rep. 8:14826
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Johnson SK, Anderson MC. 2004. The role of inhibitory control in forgetting semantic knowledge. Psychol. Sci. 15:448–53
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Kim K, Yi D-J. 2013. Out of mind, out of sight: perceptual consequences of memory suppression. Psychol. Sci. 24:4569–74
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Kössler S, Engler H, Reiether C, Kissler J 2009. No retrieval-induced forgetting under stress. Psychol. Sci. 20:1356–63
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Kuhl BA, Dudukovic NM, Kahn I, Wagner AD 2007. Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting. Nat. Neurosci. 10:908–14
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Kuhl BA, Kahn I, Dudukovic N, Wagner A 2008. Overcoming suppression in order to remember: contributions from anterior cingulate and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 8:2211–21
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Kuhl BA, Shah AT, DuBrow S, Wagner AD 2010. Resistance to forgetting associated with hippocampus-mediated reactivation during new learning. Nat. Neurosci. 13:4501–6
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Legrand N, Etard O, Vandevelde A, Pierre M, Viader F et al. 2018. Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories. bioRxiv 376954. https://doi.org/10.1101/376954
    [Crossref]
  96. Levy BJ, Anderson MC. 2012. Purging of memories from conscious awareness tracked in the human brain. J. Neurosci. 32:4716785–94
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Levy BJ, McVeigh ND, Marful A, Anderson MC 2007. Inhibiting your native language: the role of retrieval-induced forgetting during second language acquisition. Psychol. Sci. 18:129–34
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Little JL, Storm BC, Bjork EL 2011. The costs and benefits of testing text materials. Memory 19:4346–59
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Logan GD, Cowan WB. 1984. On the ability to inhibit thought and action: a theory of an act of control. Psychol. Rev. 91:3295–327
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Ludowig E, Möller J, Bien CG, Münte TF, Elger CE, Rosburg T 2010. Active suppression in the mediotemporal lobe during directed forgetting. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 93:3352–61
    [Google Scholar]
  101. MacLeod MD. 2002. Retrieval-induced forgetting in eyewitness memory: forgetting as a consequence of remembering. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 16:2135–49
    [Google Scholar]
  102. MacLeod MD, Saunders J. 2008. Retrieval inhibition and memory distortion: negative consequences of an adaptive process. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 17:126–30
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Manning JR, Hulbert JC, Williams J, Piloto L, Sahakyan L, Norman KA 2016. A neural signature of contextually mediated intentional forgetting. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 23:51534–42A vivid illustration of how directed forgetting instructions purge mental context, inducing forgetting.
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Manning JR, Norman KA, Kahana MJ 2014. The role of context in episodic memory. The Cognitive Neurosciences MS Gazzaniga, GR Mangun 557–66 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. , 5th. ed.
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Marsh L, Anderson MC 2020. Inhibition as a cause of forgetting. The Oxford Handbook of Human Memory 1 MJ Kahana, AD Wagner Oxford: Oxford University Press In press
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Mary A, Dayan J, Leone G, Postel C, Fraisse F et al. 2020. Resilience after trauma: the role of memory suppression. Science 367:6479eaay8477Compelling demonstration that brain mechanisms of active forgetting promote resilience to PTSD after terrorist attack.
    [Google Scholar]
  107. Marzi T, Regina A, Righi S 2014. Emotions shape memory suppression in trait anxiety. Front. Psychol. 4:1001
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Maxcey AM, Woodman GF. 2014. Forgetting induced by recognition of visual images. Vis. Cogn. 22:6789–808
    [Google Scholar]
  109. McGeoch JA. 1942. The Psychology of Human Learning: An Introduction New York: Longmans
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Mecklinger A, Parra M, Waldhauser GT 2009. ERP correlates of intentional forgetting. Brain Res 1255:132–47
    [Google Scholar]
  111. Melton A, Irwin J. 1940. The influence of degree of interpolated learning on retroactive inhibition and the overt transfer of specific responses. Am. J. Psychol. 53:173–203
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Migues PV, Liu L, Archbold GEB, Einarsson , Wong J et al. 2016. Blocking synaptic removal of GluA2-containing AMPA receptors prevents the natural forgetting of long-term memories. J. Neurosci. 36:123481–94
    [Google Scholar]
  113. Moscovitch M, Cabeza R, Winocur G, Nadel L 2016. Episodic memory and beyond: the hippocampus and neocortex in transformation. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 67:105–34
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Mullally SL, O'Mara SM. 2013. Suppressing the encoding of new information in memory: a behavioral study derived from principles of hippocampal function. PLOS ONE 8:1e50814
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Murayama K, Miyatsu T, Buchli D, Storm BC 2014. Forgetting as a consequence of retrieval: a meta-analytic review of retrieval-induced forgetting. Psychol. Bull. 140:51383–409
    [Google Scholar]
  116. Noreen S, de Fockert JW 2017. The role of cognitive load in intentional forgetting using the think/no-think task. Exp. Psychol. 64:114–26
    [Google Scholar]
  117. Norman KA, Newman EL, Detre G 2007. A neural network model of retrieval-induced forgetting. Psychol. Rev. 114:4887–953
    [Google Scholar]
  118. Nowicka A, Marchewka A, Jednoróg K, Tacikowski P, Brechmann A 2011. Forgetting of emotional information is hard: an fMRI study of directed forgetting. Cereb. Cortex 21:3539–49
    [Google Scholar]
  119. Oehrn CR, Fell J, Baumann C, Rosburg T, Ludowig E et al. 2018. Direct electrophysiological evidence for prefrontal control of hippocampal processing during voluntary forgetting. Curr. Biol. 28:183016–22With intracranial recordings, shows striking causal impact of DLPFC on hippocampal encoding during intentional forgetting.
    [Google Scholar]
  120. Ortega A, Gómez-Ariza CJ, Román P, Bajo MT 2012. Memory inhibition, aging, and the executive deficit hypothesis. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 38:1178–86
    [Google Scholar]
  121. Ossandón T, Jerbi K, Vidal JR, Bayle DJ, Henaff M-A et al. 2011. Transient suppression of broadband gamma power in the default-mode network is correlated with task complexity and subject performance. J. Neurosci. 31:4114521–30
    [Google Scholar]
  122. Pastötter B, Bäuml K-H, Hanslmayr S 2008. Oscillatory brain activity before and after an internal context change—evidence for a reset of encoding processes. Neuroimage 43:1173–81
    [Google Scholar]
  123. Pastötter B, Kliegl O, Bäuml K-HT 2012. List-method directed forgetting: The forget cue improves both encoding and retrieval of postcue information. Mem. Cogn. 40:6861–73
    [Google Scholar]
  124. Penolazzi B, Stramaccia DF, Braga M, Mondini S, Galfano G 2014. Human memory retrieval and inhibitory control in the brain: beyond correlational evidence. J. Neurosci. 34:196606
    [Google Scholar]
  125. Postman L, Stark K, Fraser J 1968. Temporal changes in interference. J. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav. 7:3672–94
    [Google Scholar]
  126. Raichle ME, MacLeod AM, Snyder AZ, Powers WJ, Gusnard DA, Shulman GL 2001. A default mode of brain function. PNAS 98:2676–82
    [Google Scholar]
  127. Rauchs G, Feyers D, Landeau B, Bastin C, Luxen A et al. 2011. Sleep contributes to the strengthening of some memories over others, depending on hippocampal activity at learning. J. Neurosci. 31:72563–68
    [Google Scholar]
  128. Richards BA, Frankland PW. 2017. The persistence and transience of memory. Neuron 94:61071–84Thoughtful neurobiological perspective on roles of remembering and forgetting in organisms’ adaptive use of memory.
    [Google Scholar]
  129. Rizio AA, Dennis NA. 2013. The neural correlates of cognitive control: successful remembering and intentional forgetting. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 25:2297–312
    [Google Scholar]
  130. Robbins TW, Kehagia AA. 2017. The neurochemical modulation of prefrontal control processes. The Wiley Handbook of Cognitive Control T Egner 334–54 Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  131. Roediger HL, Butler AC. 2011. The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends Cogn. Sci. 15:120–27
    [Google Scholar]
  132. Román P, Soriano MF, Gomez-Ariza CJ, Bajo MT 2009. Retrieval-induced forgetting and executive control. Psychol. Sci. 20:91053–58
    [Google Scholar]
  133. Sahakyan L, Delaney PF, Foster NL, Abushanab B 2013. List-method directed forgetting in cognitive and clinical research: a theoretical and methodological review. Psychology of Learning and Motivation 59 HR Brian 131–89 Amsterdam: Academic
    [Google Scholar]
  134. Sahakyan L, Kelley CM. 2002. A contextual change account of the directed forgetting effect. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 28:61064–72
    [Google Scholar]
  135. Schilling CJ, Storm BC, Anderson MC 2014. Examining the costs and benefits of inhibition in memory retrieval. Cognition 133:2358–70
    [Google Scholar]
  136. Schmitz TW, Correia MM, Ferreira CS, Prescot AP, Anderson MC 2017. Hippocampal GABA enables inhibitory control over unwanted thoughts. Nat. Commun. 8:11311First demonstration that neural inhibition in hippocampus is instrumental to successful forgetting by inhibitory control.
    [Google Scholar]
  137. Sharman SJ. 2011. Retrieval-induced forgetting of performed and observed bizarre and familiar actions. Exp. Psychol. 58:5361–69
    [Google Scholar]
  138. Shaw JS, Bjork RA, Handal A 1995. Retrieval-induced forgetting in an eyewitness-memory paradigm. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 2:2249–53
    [Google Scholar]
  139. Shimamura AP, Jurica PJ, Mangels JA, Gershberg FB, Knight RT 1995. Susceptibility to memory interference effects following frontal lobe damage: findings from tests of paired-associate learning. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 7:2144–52
    [Google Scholar]
  140. Shulman GL, Fiez JA, Corbetta M, Buckner RL, Miezin FM et al. 1997. Common blood flow changes across visual tasks: II. Decreases in cerebral cortex. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 9:5648–63
    [Google Scholar]
  141. Simons JS, Spiers HJ. 2003. Prefrontal and medial temporal lobe interactions in long-term memory. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4:8637–48
    [Google Scholar]
  142. Spitzer B. 2014. Finding retrieval-induced forgetting in recognition tests: a case for baseline memory strength. Front. Psychol. 5:1002
    [Google Scholar]
  143. Staudigl T, Hanslmayr S, Bäuml K-HT 2010. Theta oscillations reflect the dynamics of interference in episodic memory retrieval. J. Neurosci. 30:3411356–62
    [Google Scholar]
  144. Stone CB, Barnier AJ, Sutton J, Hirst W 2013. Forgetting our personal past: socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting of autobiographical memories. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 142:41084–99
    [Google Scholar]
  145. Storm BC, Angello G, Buchli DR, Koppel RH, Little JL, Nestojko JF 2015. A review of retrieval-induced forgetting in the contexts of learning, eyewitness memory, social cognition, autobiographical memory, and creative cognition. Psychol. Learn. Motiv. 62:141–94
    [Google Scholar]
  146. Storm BC, Bjork EL, Bjork RA, Nestojko JF 2006. Is retrieval success a necessary condition for retrieval-induced forgetting. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 13:1023–27
    [Google Scholar]
  147. Storm BC, Levy BJ. 2012. A progress report on the inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting. Mem. Cogn. 40:6827–43
    [Google Scholar]
  148. Storm BC, White HA. 2010. ADHD and retrieval-induced forgetting: evidence for a deficit in the inhibitory control of memory. Memory 18:3265–71
    [Google Scholar]
  149. Stramaccia DF, Penolazzi B, Altoè G, Galfano G 2017. TDCS over the right inferior frontal gyrus disrupts control of interference in memory: a retrieval-induced forgetting study. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 144:114–30
    [Google Scholar]
  150. Stramaccia DF, Rischer KM, Fawcett JM, Benoit RG 2019. Memory suppression and its deficiency in psychological disorders: a focused meta-analysis. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5wynm
    [Crossref]
  151. Streb M, Mecklinger A, Anderson MC, Lass-Hennemann J, Michael T 2016. Memory control ability modulates intrusive memories after analogue trauma. J. Affect. Disord. 192:134–42
    [Google Scholar]
  152. Sullivan DR, Marx B, Chen MS, Depue BE, Hayes SM, Hayes JP 2019. Behavioral and neural correlates of memory suppression in PTSD. J. Psychiatr. Res. 112:30–37
    [Google Scholar]
  153. Tempel T, Frings C. 2015. Categorization by movement direction: retrieval-induced forgetting of motor sequences grouped by motion features. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 68:3473–86
    [Google Scholar]
  154. Thompson-Schill SL, D'Esposito M, Aguirre GK, Farah MJ 1997. Role of left inferior prefrontal cortex in retrieval of semantic knowledge: a reevaluation. PNAS 94:2614792–97
    [Google Scholar]
  155. Valle TM, Bajo M, Gomez-Ariza CJ 2020. Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex cancels out the cost of selective retrieval on subsequent analogical reasoning. Neuropsychologia 141:107431
    [Google Scholar]
  156. Valle TM, Gómez-Ariza CJ, Bajo MT 2019. Inhibitory control during selective retrieval may hinder subsequent analogical thinking. PLOS ONE 14:2e0211881
    [Google Scholar]
  157. van Schie K, Anderson MC 2017. Successfully controlling intrusive memories is harder when control must be sustained. Memory 25:91201–16
    [Google Scholar]
  158. Waldhauser GT, Bäuml K-HT, Hanslmayr S 2015. Brain oscillations mediate successful suppression of unwanted memories. Cereb. Cortex 25:114180–90
    [Google Scholar]
  159. Waldhauser GT, Dahl MJ, Ruf-Leuschner M, Müller-Bamouh V, Schauer M et al. 2018. The neural dynamics of deficient memory control in heavily traumatized refugees. Sci. Rep. 8:113132
    [Google Scholar]
  160. Wang Y, Cao Z, Zhu Z, Cai H, Wu Y 2015. Cue-independent forgetting by intentional suppression—evidence for inhibition as the mechanism of intentional forgetting. Cognition 143:031–35
    [Google Scholar]
  161. Wang Y, Luppi A, Fawcett J, Anderson MC 2019. Reconsidering unconscious persistence: Suppressing unwanted memories reduces their indirect expression in later thoughts. Cognition 187:78–94
    [Google Scholar]
  162. Wiecki TV, Frank MJ. 2013. A computational model of inhibitory control in frontal cortex and basal ganglia. Psychol. Rev. 120:2329–55
    [Google Scholar]
  163. Wierzba M, Riegel M, Wypych M, Jednoróg K, Grabowska A, Marchewka A 2018. Cognitive control over memory—individual differences in memory performance for emotional and neutral material. Sci. Rep. 8:13808
    [Google Scholar]
  164. Wimber M, Alink A, Charest I, Kriegeskorte N, Anderson MC 2015. Retrieval induces adaptive forgetting of competing memories via cortical pattern suppression. Nat. Neurosci. 18:582–89
    [Google Scholar]
  165. Wimber M, Bäuml K-H, Bergström Z, Markopoulos G, Heinze H-J, Richardson-Klavehn A 2008. Neural markers of inhibition in human memory retrieval. J. Neurosci. 28:5013419–27
    [Google Scholar]
  166. Wimber M, Schott BH, Wendler F, Seidenbecher CI, Behnisch G et al. 2011. Prefrontal dopamine and the dynamic control of human long-term memory. Transl. Psychiatry 1:7e15
    [Google Scholar]
  167. Wixted JT. 2004. The psychology and neuroscience of forgetting. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 55:235–69
    [Google Scholar]
  168. Wu JQ, Peters GJ, Rittner P, Cleland TA, Smith DM 2014. The hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and selective memory retrieval: evidence from a rodent model of the retrieval-induced forgetting effect. Hippocampus 24:91070–80
    [Google Scholar]
  169. Wylie GR, Foxe JJ, Taylor TL 2008. Forgetting as an active process: an fMRI investigation of item-method–directed forgetting. Cereb. Cortex 18:3670–82
    [Google Scholar]
  170. Yamashiro JK, Hirst W. 2020. Convergence on collective memories: central speakers and distributed remembering. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 149:3461–81
    [Google Scholar]
  171. Yang T, Lei X, Anderson M 2016. Decreased inhibitory control of negative information in directed forgetting. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 100:44–51
    [Google Scholar]
  172. Zacks RT, Radvansky G, Hasher L 1996. Studies of directed forgetting in older adults. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 22:1143–56
    [Google Scholar]
  173. Zhu Z, Wang Y 2020. Forgetting unrelated episodic memories through suppression-induced amnesia. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen In press. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000782
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-072720-094140
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-072720-094140
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error