ABSTRACT

The retrieval inhibition model of directed forgetting proposes that access to to-be-forgotten (TBF) items is blocked or inhibited as a result of a forget instruction (Bjork, 1989; Geiselman, Bjork, & Fishman, 1983). The value of the model is that it can account for directed forgetting that is unexplainable by the selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. Memory is often successfully updated in situations where rehearsal is not common, such as when errors in communication occur and when errata are corrected. For example, suppose that a colleague tells you that a committee meeting has been scheduled for the next day at noon. Later that day, the same colleague stops you in the hall and tells you that she was incorrect and the meeting time actually is 2 hours later. Many of us would be unlikely to rehearse the new meeting time; we would simply thank her, continue on down the hall, and make the meeting on time without rehearsing the new time. Retrieval inhibition provides a way of keeping memory current that makes interference from irrelevant information unlikely.