Human memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments. Chinese participants received a mild self-threat manipulation (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) before an ethnicity-RIF task that involved practicing negative traits of either in-group (Chinese) or an out-group (Japanese) target. After a subsequent memory test, participants selected their preferred applicant for employment. RIF scores correspond to forgetting of unpracticed positive traits of one target (Rp−) relative to the recall of practiced negative traits of the other target (Rp+). Enhanced forgetting of positive traits was found in both experiments for both targets. Across experiments, a significant target by threat interaction showed that target ethnicity modified RIF (an ethnicity-RIF effect). Inducing a self-protecting motivation enhanced RIF effects for the out-group (Japanese) target. In a subsequent employment decision, there was a strong bias to select the in-group target, with the confidence in these decisions being associated with RIF scores. This study suggests that rehearsing negative traits of minority applicants can affect metacognitive aspects of employment decisions, possibly by shaping the schemas available to the majority (in-group) employer. To disrupt systemic racism, recruitment practices should aim to offset a human motivation to protect one-self, when exposed to a relatively mild threat to self-esteem. Discussing the negative traits of minority applicants is a critical, and sensitive, aspect of decision-making that warrants careful practice. These data suggest that recruiting individuals should be reminded of their personal strengths in this context, not their vulnerabilities, to secure their decision-making for fairer recruitment practice.
Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is typically observed in verbal memory tasks, although a few studies have observed RIF in visual spatial tasks. This leaves an open question as to whether RIF depends on semantic identity to link across semantic properties of objects, or whether RIF depends on access to the perceptual features of objects. To explore RIF of spatial positions, we report three experiments utilizing a continuous measure of the accessibility and precision for objects that were distinguished by their shape, color, and spatial region. After a study phase, half of the objects in a single-color category were selectively practiced for their spatial position, by requiring the object to be placed in the exact spatial position seen previously. Finally, all objects were probed for their spatial position at test. No RIF occurred for objects that shared only one color feature but were located within the same spatial region (in Experiment 1) or when objects shared the same color, but were located within different spatial regions (in Experiment 3). However, RIF did occur when objects shared the same spatial region and the same color (Experiment 2). Overall, the interim recall of the spatial positions of cue-objects impairs access to the position of other cue-objects within the same color category, but only when these groups had sufficient overlapping and competing features. The finding that RIF only occurs to the accessibility of spatial positions, not the precision of visual spatial memory, was interpreted as consistent with inhibitory theories of forgetting.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.