Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Executive Control

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1053-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Román ◽  
M. Felipa Soriano ◽  
Carlos J. Gómez-Ariza ◽  
M. Teresa Bajo
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Practice Condition ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Induced Forgetting ◽  
Task Conditions

Retrieving information from long-term memory can lead people to forget previously irrelevant related information. Some researchers have proposed that this retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect is mediated by inhibitory executive-control mechanisms recruited to overcome interference. We assessed whether inhibition in RTF depends on executive processes. The RIF effect observed in a standard retrieval-practice condition was compared to that observed in two different conditions in which participants had to perform two concurrent updating tasks that demanded executive attention. Whereas the usual RIF effect was observed when retrieval practice was performed singly, no evidence of forgetting was found in the dual-task conditions. Results strongly suggest that inhibition involved in RIF is the result of executive-control processes.

Exhaustion of the Executive Control Capacity Eliminates Retrieval Induced Forgetting

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110187
Author(s):  
Ceyda Tumen ◽  
Simay Ikier
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Inhibition Mechanism ◽  
Practice Phase ◽  
Final Recall ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Concurrent Tasks ◽  
Induced Forgetting ◽  
The One ◽  
Prior Task

Retrieval Induced Forgetting (RIF) demonstrates that retrieval of information can lead to forgetting of related information. The standard RIF paradigm involves studying a certain number of category-exemplar pairs; thereafter, half of the exemplars from half of the categories are retrieved. Finally, all studied pairs are recalled. RIF is revealed when unretrieved exemplars from the retrieved categories are more poorly recalled than exemplars from the unretrieved categories. One explanation for RIF asserts that inhibition prevents interference from the exemplars of the same category during the interpolated retrieval practice phase, which leads to forgetting of these items at final recall. An ongoing debate concerns whether this inhibition requires executive control or whether it is automatic. If inhibition in RIF involves executive control, then a task that will exhaust this limited capacity should reduce or eliminate the RIF effect. The effects of concurrent tasks during the retrieval practice phase have been shown to reduce or eliminate RIF, however, to our knowledge, the effects of prior tasks on RIF has not been investigated. In the present study, in one condition, we conducted an exhaustive inhibition task before the retrieval practice phase and compared this condition to the one in which the prior task was non-exhaustive. Results showed that the RIF effect was eliminated when the prior task was exhaustive. The results supported the executive control view for the inhibition mechanism behind RIF and further showed that exhaustion of the executive control capacity can impair inhibition in subsequent tasks.

Evidence Against Associative Blocking as a Cause of Cue-Independent Retrieval-Induced Forgetting

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin C. Hulbert ◽  
Geeta Shivde ◽  
Michael C. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Final Test ◽  
Associative Blocking ◽  
Induced Forgetting ◽  
Retrieval Interference

Selectively retrieving an item from long-term memory reduces the accessibility of competing traces, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). RIF exhibits cue independence, or the tendency for forgetting to generalize to novel test cues, suggesting an inhibitory basis for this phenomenon. An alternative view ( Camp, Pecher, & Schmidt, 2007 ; Camp et al., 2009 ; Perfect et al., 2004 ) suggests that using novel test cues to measure cue independence actually engenders associative interference when participants covertly supplement retrieval with practiced cues that then associatively block retrieval. Accordingly, the covert-cueing hypothesis assumes that the relative strength of the practiced items at final test – and not the inhibition levied on the unpracticed items during retrieval practice – underlies cue-independent forgetting. As such, this perspective predicts that strengthening practiced items by any means, even if not via retrieval practice, should induce forgetting. Contrary to these predictions, however, we present clear evidence that cue-independent forgetting is induced by retrieval practice and not by repeated study exposures. This dissociation occurred despite significant, comparable levels of strengthening of practiced items in each case, and despite the use of Anderson and Spellman’s original (1995) independent probe method criticized by covert-cueing theorists as being especially conducive to associative blocking. These results demonstrate that cue-independent RIF is unrelated to the strengthening of practiced items, and thereby fail to support a key prediction of the covert-cueing hypothesis. The results, instead, favor a role of inhibition in resolving retrieval interference.

scholarly journals Pedagogical Strategies for the Enhancement of Medical Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad B. Azzam ◽  
Ronald A. Easteal
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory And Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Sleep Consolidation

AbstractClearly, memory and learning are essential to medical education. To make memory and learning more robust and long-term, educators should turn to the advances in neuroscience and cognitive science to direct their efforts. This paper describes the memory pathways and stages with emphasis leading to long-term memory storage. Particular stress is placed on this storage as a construct known as schema. Leading from this background, several pedagogical strategies are described: cognitive load, dual encoding, spiral syllabus, bridging and chunking, sleep consolidation, and retrieval practice.

Effects of combining retrieval practice and tDCS over long-term memory: A randomized controlled trial

2021 ◽  
pp. 105807
Author(s):  
Beatriz Araújo Cavendish ◽  
Marcos Felipe Rodrigues de Lima ◽  
Lara Perícoli ◽  
Luciano Grüdtner Buratto
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Randomized Controlled

scholarly journals Verbal long-term memory is enhanced by retrieval practice but impaired by prefrontal direct current stimulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tad T. Brunyé ◽  
Amy M. Smith ◽  
Carlene B. Horner ◽  
Ayanna K. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Direct Current ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation

Guidance in the Interface

2009 ◽  
pp. 465-482
Author(s):  
Christof van Nimwegen ◽  
Hermina Tabachneck-Schijf ◽  
Herre van Oostendorp
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Transfer Task ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Initial Learning ◽  
Error Behavior

How can we design technology that suits human cognitive needs? In this chapter, we review research on the effects of externalizing information on the interface versus requiring people to internalize it. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of externalizing information. Further, we discuss some of our own research investigating how externalizing or not externalizing information in program interfaces influences problem-solving performance. In general, externalization provides information relevant to immediate task execution visibly or audibly in the interface. Thus, remembering certain task-related knowledge becomes unnecessary, which relieves working memory. Examples are visual feedback aids such as “graying out” nonapplicable menu items. On the contrary, when certain needed task-related information is not externalized on the interface, it needs to be internalized, stored in working memory and long-term memory. In many task situations, having the user acquire more knowledge of the structure of the task or its underlying rules is desirable. We examined the hypothesis that while externalization will yield better performance during initial learning, internalization will yield a better performance later. We furthermore expected internalization to result in better knowledge, and expected it to provoke less trial-and-error behavior. We conducted an experiment where we compared an interface with certain information externalized versus not externalizing it, and measured performance and knowledge. In a second session 8 months later, we investigated what was left of the participants’ knowledge and skills, and presented them with a transfer task. The results showed that requiring internalization can yield advantages over having all information immediately at hand. This shows that using cognitive findings to enhance the effectiveness of software (especially software with specific purposes) can make a valuable contribution to the field of human-computer interaction.

Multicomponent Working Memory System with Distributed Executive Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Vandierendonck
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Memory System ◽  
General Information ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Episodic Buffer ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Current Task

The working memory model with distributed executive control accounts for the interactions between working memory and multi-tasking performance. The working memory system supports planned actions by relying on two capacity-limited domain-general and two time-limited domain-specific modules. Domain-general modules are the episodic buffer and the executive module. The episodic buffer stores multimodal representations and uses attentional refreshment to counteract information loss and to consolidate information in episodic long-term memory. The executive module maintains domain-general information relevant for the current task. The phonological buffer and the visuospatial module are domain specific; the former uses inner speech to maintain and to rehearse phonological information, whereas the latter holds visual and spatial representations active by means of image revival. For its operation, working memory interacts with declarative and procedural long-term memory, gets input from sensory registers, and uses the motor system for output.

Two retrievals from a single cue: A bottleneck persists across episodic and semantic memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 1005-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Orscheschek ◽  
Tilo Strobach ◽  
Torsten Schubert ◽  
Timothy Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Verbal Response ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Keypress Response ◽  
Unique Word

There is evidence in the literature that two retrievals from long-term memory cannot occur in parallel. To date, however, that work has explored only the case of two retrievals from newly acquired episodic memory. These studies demonstrated a retrieval bottleneck even after dual-retrieval practice. That retrieval bottleneck may be a global property of long-term memory retrieval, or it may apply only to the case of two retrievals from episodic memory. In the current experiments, we explored whether that apparent dual-retrieval bottleneck applies to the case of one retrieval from episodic memory and one retrieval from highly overlearned semantic memory. Across three experiments, subjects learned to retrieve a left or right keypress response form a set of 14 unique word cues (e.g., black—right keypress). In addition, they learned a verbal response which involved retrieving the antonym of the presented cue (e.g., black—“white”). In the dual-retrieval condition, subjects had to retrieve both the keypress response and the antonym word. The results suggest that the retrieval bottleneck is superordinate to specific long-term memory systems and holds across different memory components. In addition, the results support the assumption of a cue-level response chunking account of learned retrieval parallelism.

scholarly journals The impairing effect of acute stress on the intentional forgetting of future fears and its moderation by working memory capacity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Ashton ◽  
Roland Georg Benoit ◽  
Conny W.E.M. Quaedflieg
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Executive Control Network ◽  
Intentional Forgetting ◽  
Induced Forgetting

Unwanted imaginations of future fears can, to some extent, be avoided. This is achieved by control mechanisms similar to those engaged to intentionally forget unwanted memories. Intentional forgetting relies on the executive control network, whose functioning is impaired after exposure to acute stress. This study investigates whether acute stress affects the ability to intentionally control future fears and, furthermore, whether individual differences in executive control predict a susceptibility to these effects. The study ran over two consecutive days. On day 1, the working memory capacity of one hundred participants was assessed. Thereafter, participants provided descriptions and details of fearful episodes that they imagined might happen in their future. On day 2, participants were exposed to either the stress or no-stress version of the Maastricht Acute Stress Test, after which participants performed the Imagine/No-Imagine task. Here, participants repeatedly imagined some future fears and suppressed imaginings of others. Results demonstrated that, in unstressed participants, suppression successfully induced forgetting of the episodes’ details compared to a baseline condition. However, the observed reduction in anxiety toward these events remained unchanged. Acute stress was found to selectively impair intentional forgetting and, further, this effect was moderated by working memory capacity. Specifically, low working memory predicted a susceptibility to these detrimental effects. These findings provide novel insights into conditions under which our capacity to actively control future fears is reduced, which may have considerable implications for understanding stress-related psychopathologies and symptomatologies characterized by unwanted apprehensive thoughts.

The Nature of Task Set Representations in Working Memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1950-1961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Kikumoto ◽  
Ulrich Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Task Sets ◽  
Limited Process

Selection and preparation of action plans (task sets) is often assumed to occur in working memory (WM). Yet, the absence of consistent evidence that WM capacity and task selection efficiency is correlated raises questions about the functional relationship between these two aspects of executive control. We used the EEG-derived contralateral delay activity (CDA) to index the WM load of task sets. In Experiment 1, we found a CDA set size effect (2 vs. 4 stimulus–response [S-R] rules) for high-WM, but not for low-WM, individuals when S-R sets were novel. In contrast, when only four task sets were presented throughout the experiment, we observed a sustained yet set size-independent use of WM for high-WM participants. Moreover, Experiment 2 showed an increase of the CDA in situations with task conflict, and this effect was larger the more that participants experienced RT conflict effects. Combined, these results indicate that even highly familiar S-R settings are maintained in WM, albeit in a compressed manner, presumably through cues to long-term memory representations. Finally, participants with low-WM capacity represented even familiar tasks in a load-dependent manner, suggesting that the establishment of effective retrieval structures itself is a capacity-limited process.

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