Slowdown vs. breakdown of memory recall by retrieval stopping.

Think/No-Think studies have shown that people can prevent memories from coming up to their mind by explicitly attempting to not think of them. However, there is an important limitation in the measures typically used: binary recall vs. no-recall accuracy under a specific time deadline. In this study,...

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Published in:Memory & Cognition Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 2028 - 2041
Main Authors: Nishiyama, Satoru, O'Reilly, Randall C., Saito, Satoru
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Oct2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2025
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        atl: Slowdown vs. breakdown of memory recall by retrieval stopping.
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        au:
          Nishiyama, Satoru
          O'Reilly, Randall C.
          Saito, Satoru
        affil:
          https://ror.org/02kpeqv85 Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Yoshidahonmachi, Japan
          https://ror.org/00hhkn466 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 5-3-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-Ku, 102-0083, Tokyo, Japan
          https://ror.org/05rrcem69 Department of Psychology, University of California, 135 Young Hall, One Shields Avenue, 95616, Davis, CA, USA
          https://ror.org/05rrcem69 Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Grey Hall, 1544 Newton Court, 95618, Davis, CA, USA
          https://ror.org/05rrcem69 Department of Computer Science, University of California, One Shields Avenue, 95616, Davis, CA, USA
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        Japan
        Self-evaluation
        Executive function
        Universities & colleges
        Psychological adaptation
        Memory
        Analysis of variance
        Psychology of college students
        Student attitudes
        Repeated measures design
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        Intention
        Comparative studies
        Data analysis software
        Thought & thinking
      sug:
        subj:
          Self-evaluation
          Executive function
          Universities & colleges
          Psychological adaptation
          Memory
          Analysis of variance
          Psychology of college students
          Student attitudes
          Japan
          Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
          Repeated measures design
          T-test (Statistics)
          Cognitive testing
          Research funding
          Questionnaires
          Descriptive statistics
          Experimental design
          Intention
          Comparative studies
          Data analysis software
          Thought & thinking
      keyword:
        Inhibition
        Interference
        Recall latency
        Retrieval stopping
        Think/No-Think
        Inhibition
        Interference
        Recall latency
        Retrieval stopping
        Think/No-Think
      ab: Think/No-Think studies have shown that people can prevent memories from coming up to their mind by explicitly attempting to not think of them. However, there is an important limitation in the measures typically used: binary recall vs. no-recall accuracy under a specific time deadline. In this study, we instead focused on recall latency with a longer response window to accommodate a wider range of recall latencies. We found in Experiment 1 that direct suppression in the standard No-Think condition had a relatively uniform, graded effect, slowing the recall process in such a way that more recall failures occur with a short deadline, but a longer deadline (10 s) allows for successful recall at rates comparable to a baseline condition. In Experiment 2, thought substitution also caused the slowdown of the recall despite still lower recall rate than a baseline in 10 s. These results suggest that memory recall is subject to graded impairment across all items in a consistent manner instead of the breakdown of recall among a subset of memories. For understanding forgetting by retrieval stopping, excessive use of recall rate should be avoided, and recall latency is a potential alternative.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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