ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the mechanisms that underlie forgetting. The apparent flattening out of the forgetting curve over time demonstrates that memories are not equally vulnerable to forgetting at all points in their history. Experimental psychologists have traditionally emphasized incidental forgetting, stressing the involvement of passive processes that occur as a bi-product of changes in the world or the person. Retrieval-induced forgetting is usually studied with the retrieval practice paradigm. Associative unlearning is theoretical account of interference effects, which can be illustrated intuitively with a real-life example. Research on retrieval-induced forgetting suggests that selectively retrieving facts or events places demands on attentional control processes like inhibition, to overcome interference from distracting memories.
