Intentional Forgetting : Interdisciplinary Approaches

Research on intentional forgetting has been conducted in various forms and under various names since at least the 1960s.

Using review chapters and empirical studies, this text brings together the many research paradigms investigating intentional forgetting and highlights the commonalities that link these seemingly disparate areas of research.

So why is research on forgetting important? Such work helps to increase the understanding of how memory functions - especially with regard to its updating.

We are frequently unable to process all the information we experience; the forgetting of some information is therefore necessary.

Additionally, existing information must often be updated or replaced with new information.

Investigating this updating ability has been the main thrust of research on intentional forgetting, specifically those studies on the directed forgetting phenomenon.

Cognitive experiments on directed forgetting have shown that we are able to deal more effectively with large amounts of information by following instructions to treat some of the information as "to be forgotten". In this way "interference" is reduced and we are able to devote all of our resources to the remaining "to be remembered" information.

The mechanisms which lead to this reduction continue to promote experiments, but over 25 years of research maintains that the directed forgetting effect is robust.