Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories
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Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories. / Nørby, Simon; Lange, Martin; Larsen, Axel.
I: Acta Psychologica, Bind 133, 2010, s. 73-80.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories
AU - Nørby, Simon
AU - Lange, Martin
AU - Larsen, Axel
N1 - Paper id:: doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.10.002
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Can we control the content of our memory and forget what we do not want to think about by an act ofwill? If so, is forgetting temporary or permanent, and is it independent of the nature of what we wish toforget? Using Anderson and Green’s (2001) ‘‘think/no-think” paradigm with neutral and emotionalnouns, we found in agreement with other studies that memory for neutral words was reduced instantlyupon repeated attempts at suppression. However, the effect was temporary and vanished after a period ofone week, which strongly suggests that intended memory suppression interferes with immediate retrievalbut does not lead to long-term forgetting. Furthermore, the amount of training that clearly reducedimmediate recall of neutral items did not at all reduce recall of emotional items. This finding is in accordancewith the notion that emotional items have a higher degree of salience and tend to attract moreattention than neutral items.
AB - Can we control the content of our memory and forget what we do not want to think about by an act ofwill? If so, is forgetting temporary or permanent, and is it independent of the nature of what we wish toforget? Using Anderson and Green’s (2001) ‘‘think/no-think” paradigm with neutral and emotionalnouns, we found in agreement with other studies that memory for neutral words was reduced instantlyupon repeated attempts at suppression. However, the effect was temporary and vanished after a period ofone week, which strongly suggests that intended memory suppression interferes with immediate retrievalbut does not lead to long-term forgetting. Furthermore, the amount of training that clearly reducedimmediate recall of neutral items did not at all reduce recall of emotional items. This finding is in accordancewith the notion that emotional items have a higher degree of salience and tend to attract moreattention than neutral items.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
U2 - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.10.002
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 19906363
VL - 133
SP - 73
EP - 80
JO - Acta Psychologica
JF - Acta Psychologica
SN - 0001-6918
ER -
ID: 17087476