Abstract:
Selectively retrieving an item associated with a cue from long-term memory reduces the accessibility
of other items associated with the same cue, which is known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). The purpose
of this study is to prove the cue independence of RIF through independence probe technique and to explore the
type of inhibition mechanism.
Experiment 1 investigates different inhibition levels of participants’ RIF, cross-category inhibition and secondorder inhibition, which investigate the cue independence of RIF. Experiment 2 explores the RIF on different
levels of inhibition under different material category relationship and purpose of this study is to examine the
inhibition mechanism deeply.
The results are as follows: (1) in experiment 1, there are RIF, cross-category inhibition and second-order
inhibition in the research, but no significant differences between high and low inhibition level groups. (2) in
experiment 2, there are no significant differences between high and low inhibition level groups under both
category relationship, but the RIF of the related condition is greater than the RIF of the unrelated condition
significantly.
The emergence of cross-category inhibition and second-order inhibition proves the cue independence of RIF
and demonstrates the inhibition mechanism of RIF. There are no significant differences between high and low
inhibition level groups under both category relationship, which indicates an unconscious automated inhibition
mechanism.
探讨提取诱发遗忘的抑制机制。实验一考察了高、低抑制能力组的提取诱发遗忘、跨类别抑制和二级抑制现象。结果在整体水平上出现了提取诱发遗忘、跨类别抑制和二级抑制,但高、低抑制能力组的遗忘量无差异。实验二探索了在不同材料类别关系下高、低抑制能力组的提取诱发遗忘效应。结果发现,在类别相关下的遗忘量显著大于类别无关下的遗忘量,但高、低抑制能力组在两种条件下的遗忘量相当。研究表明提取诱发遗忘是一种自动化的抑制过程。