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Poster Presentations

  • Heisick, L. L. (2019). Forget me not: Are stronger memories more susceptible to retrieval-induced forgetting? Poster to be presented at the Psychonomic Society, Montréal, Canada, (November 2019).​
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    • Abstract:​ Retrieving information sometimes causes forgetting of related, but unpracticed, information, termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). The inhibition account of RIF suggests related but unpracticed information is inhibited during retrieval, resulting in forgetting. Critically, this account predicts stronger memories are more susceptible to RIF because they produce greater competition when unpracticed. Two experiments aimed to replicate recent work suggesting memorable objects and faces are more likely to be forgotten. In Experiment 1, participants studied and practiced typical and non-typical objects, and in Experiment 2, participants studied and practiced own-and other-race faces. Experiment 1showed memorability influenced the magnitude of RIF: Non-typical (i.e., highly memorable) objects were more likely to be forgotten than typical (i.e., non-memorable) objects. Experiment 2 revealed no RIF for own-or other-race faces.These findings suggest that if memory traces are too weak to produce competition, no RIF is observed, and provide support to inhibitory accounts of RIF.

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