Mc. Anderson et al., REMEMBERING CAN CAUSE FORGETTING - RETRIEVAL DYNAMICS IN LONG-TERM-MEMORY, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 20(5), 1994, pp. 1063-1087
Three studies show that the retrieval process itself causes long-lasti
ng forgetting. Ss studied 8 categories (e.g., Fruit). Half the members
of half the categories were then repeatedly practiced through retriev
al tests (e.g., Fruit Or}}}). Category-cued recall of unpracticed memb
ers of practiced categories was impaired on a delayed test. Experiment
s 2 and 3 identified 2 significant features of this retrieval-induced
forgetting: The impairment remains when output interference is control
led, suggesting a retrieval-based suppression that endures for 20 min
or more, and the impairment appears restricted to high-frequency membe
rs. Low-frequency members show little impairment, even in the presence
of strong, practiced competitors that might be expected to block acce
ss to those items. These findings suggest a critical role for suppress
ion in models of retrieval inhibition and implicate the retrieval proc
ess itself in everyday forgetting.