Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories

Simon Nørby; Martin Lange; Axel Larsen

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.10.002

Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories

Simon Nørby, Martin Lange, Axel Larsen

27 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Can we control the content of our memory and forget what we do not want to think about by an act of

will? If so, is forgetting temporary or permanent, and is it independent of the nature of what we wish to

forget? Using Anderson and Green’s (2001) ‘‘think/no-think” paradigm with neutral and emotional

nouns, we found in agreement with other studies that memory for neutral words was reduced instantly

upon repeated attempts at suppression. However, the effect was temporary and vanished after a period of

one week, which strongly suggests that intended memory suppression interferes with immediate retrieval

but does not lead to long-term forgetting. Furthermore, the amount of training that clearly reduced

immediate recall of neutral items did not at all reduce recall of emotional items. This finding is in accordance

with the notion that emotional items have a higher degree of salience and tend to attract more

attention than neutral items.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Acta Psychologica
Vol/bind	133
Sider (fra-til)	73-80
Antal sider	8
ISSN	0001-6918
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.10.002
Status	Udgivet - jan. 2010

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Citationsformater

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AU - Lange, Martin

AU - Larsen, Axel

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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.

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Forgetting to forget: On the duration of voluntary suppression of neutral and emotional memories

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