Towards a Cognitive and Neurobiological Model of Motivated Forgetting
- 18 October 2011
- book chapter
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
- Vol. 58, 53-120
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1195-6_3
Abstract
Historically, research on forgetting has been dominated by the assumption that forgetting is passive, reflecting decay, interference, and changes in context. This emphasis arises from the pervasive assumption that forgetting is a negative outcome. Here, we present a functional view of forgetting in which the fate of experience in memory is determined as much by motivational forces that dictate the focus of attention as it is by passive factors. A central tool of motivated forgetting is retrieval suppression, a process whereby people shut down episodic retrieval to control awareness. We review behavioral, neurobiological, and clinical research and show that retrieval suppression leads us to forget suppressed experiences. We discuss key questions necessary to address to develop this model, relationships to other forgetting phenomena, and the implications of this research for understanding recovered memories. This work provides a foundation for understanding how motivational forces influence what we remember of life experience.This publication has 140 references indexed in Scilit:
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