ABSTRACT
Given that forgetting can at times be a positive goal, it becomes important to address how we accomplish it, when successful. Although
there are likely to be a variety of ways people limit the accessibility of unwanted memories, there has been considerable emphasis on the role of inhibition in accomplishing this function. Inhibition refers to a hypothesized control mechanism that reduces the level of activation associated with a trace, rendering it less accessible to ongoing cognition. e existence of inhibitory processes has been hypothesized in many dierent domains of human cognition, including attention, memory, language, and motor action (see Dagenbach & Carr, 1994; Dempster & Brainerd, 1995; Gorfein & MacLeod, 2007). In memory research, the inhibition view hypothesizes that when the activation associated with a trace is disruptive, inhibition may be engaged to reduce this unwanted accessibility. e persistence of this inhibition is thought to induce forgetting. us, inhibition may be one instrumental process in achieving adaptive or functional forgetting.
