Retrieval induced forgetting: A case of interference

Inhibition as a psychological construct has been used to explain a wide range of cognitive behaviors including phenomena such as negative priming, inhibition of return, directed forgetting and retrieval-induced forgetting. In general, these phenomena typically show a decrement in performance, measured by accuracy or reaction time, relative to a baseline response. Such decreases in performance have been argued to reflect inhibitory processes which serve to suppress a response to a stimulus. Inhibitory models of cognition are intuitively appealing in the sense that they provide an explanation of behavior that parallels the fimctioning of neurons. Despite the widespread acceptance of inhibition within the domain of cognition, a number of researchers have begun to question the plausibility of such a mechanism, and instead have offered inhibition free accounts of cognitive phenomena (Neil1 & Mathis, 1998; Pratt, Spalek & Bradshaw, 1999; MacLeod, Dodd & Sheard, 2003). The central aim of this thesis was to examine the utility of an inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting. In particular, the experiments reported here demonstrate the limitations of an inhibitory account, and instead support an interference based account of retrieval-induced forgetting.