Forgetting Is a Feature, Not a Bug: Intentionally Forgetting Some Things Helps Us Remember Others by Freeing Up Working Memory Resources

Abstract

In the present study, we used an item-method directed-forgetting paradigm to test whether instructions to forget or remember one item affect memory for subsequently studied items. In two experiments ( Ns = 138 and 33, respectively), recall was higher when a word pair was preceded during study by a to-be-forgotten word pair. This effect was cumulative: Performance increased when more preceding study items were to be forgotten. The effect decreased when memory was conditioned on instructions for items appearing farther back in the study list. Experiment 2 used a dual-task paradigm that suppressed, during encoding, verbal rehearsal or attentional refreshing. Neither task removed the effect, ruling out that rehearsal or attentional borrowing is responsible for the advantage conferred from previous to-be-forgotten items. We propose that memory formation depletes a limited resource that recovers over time and that to-be-forgotten items consume fewer resources, leaving more resources available for storing subsequent items. A computational model implementing the theory provided excellent fits to the data.

Intent matters: Resolving the intentional versus incidental learning paradox in episodic long-term memory.

“…The first 10 experiments used the same pool of items—180 high-frequency English words for concrete objects from the stimulus pool used by Popov et al (2019). All words were five to seven letters in length.…”

Directed forgetting in working memory.

“…By contrast, in the literature on directed forgetting in episodic LTM, testing the to-be-forgotten items by a surprise test is common and forms the very basis for assessing the success of intentional forgetting (e.g., Bjork, 1970; Fawcett & Taylor, 2008; MacLeod, 1999; Popov et al, 2019). During a learning phase of such paradigms, either a list of items or each individual item is followed by a remember or forget instruction.…”

How does caffeine influence memory? Drug, experimental, and demographic factors

“…Cognitive resources are defined as a limited quantity enabling cognitive functions and processes (Oberauer et al, 2016;Shenhav et al, 2017). In this view, memory is a resourcelimited process (Anderson et al, 1996;Barrouillet et al, 2004;Bjork and Bjork, 2009;Borragán et al, 2017;Just and Carpenter, 1992;Logie, 2011;Ma et al, 2014;Popov et al, 2019;Vergauwe and Cowan, 2015). This resource limit can occur during encoding, such as when the amount of processing resource cannot cope with task demand (Camos and Portrat, 2015); consolidation, such as when multiple representations are competing for storage resources (McFarlane and Humphreys, 2012;Zhang and Luck, 2008); or retrieval, such as when previously retrieved information interferes with the ongoing retrieval process (Wixted and Rohrer, 1993).…”

“…Some studies have analogised cognitive resources to muscle strength, which depletes with sustained use and recovers over time (Popov and Reder, 2020). As muscle strength, stamina, and repair can be promoted by diet or exercise (Maughan, 2002), the amount and availability of cognitive resources may also be enhanced through behavioural or pharmacological interventions (Popov et al, 2019;Popov and Reder, 2020). Existing evidence suggests that in healthy adults, sleeping, physical activities, noninvasive brain stimulation, and nootropics can be applied to boost global cognitive functions (Boggio et al, 2009;Manenti et al, 2013).…”