Oscillatory correlates of intentional updating in episodic memory

Prefrontally Driven Downregulation of Neural Synchrony Mediates Goal-Directed Forgetting

“…This interpretation is corroborated by our finding that stimulating the dlPFC during List 2 encoding selectively impaired memory for the tobe-forgotten List 1 items, without affecting memory for the to-be-remembered List 2 items. This result is quite remarkable, given that rTMS was applied during List 2 encoding, but fits with prior work indicating that the forget cue induces two dissociable effects (Sahakyan and Delaney, 2003;Bäuml et al, 2008;Pastötter and Bäuml, 2010), which both operate during List 2 encoding (i.e., after the forget cue has been given) Pastötter and Bäuml, 2010). These results also replicate prior fMRI and lesion studies indicating that memory control is mediated by the dorsolateral PFC (Conway and Fthenaki, 2003;Anderson et al, 2004;Depue et al, 2007).…”

“…Regarding the cognitive processes underlying directed forgetting, one dominant view is that the forget cue triggers the inhibition of the original encoding context of the items, creating problems in retrieving these items when tested later (Geiselman et al, 1983;Anderson, 2005;Bäuml et al, 2008). This idea acknowledges the fact that directed forgetting is usually found in recall tasks but not in recognition tasks (Bjork, 1989), and that forgetting can be eliminated once the original encoding context gets reactivated (Bjork and Bjork, 1996;Samenieh, 2010, 2012).…”

Directed forgetting in young children: Evidence for a production deficiency

“…Although the results of the present low-emphasis condition are consistent with such singlemechanism accounts, neither inhibition nor context change can explain why first graders showed reliable List 1 forgetting but did not show any List 2 enhancement in the highemphasis condition. However, this developmental dissociation is consistent with other work reporting dissociations between the two DF effects (e.g., Bäuml, Hanslmayr, Pastötter, & Klimesch, 2008;Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010;Sahakyan & Delaney, 2003, and it is consistent with two-mechanism accounts of DF, according to which a retrieval-based mechanism (e.g., inhibition or context change) underlies List 1 forgetting and an encoding-based mechanism (e.g., a change in encoding strategy) underlies List 2 enhancement Sahakyan & Delaney, 2003). Following such two-mechanism accounts, the present results suggest that the retrieval-based List 1 mechanism develops earlier than the encoding-based List 2 mechanism and that only the former and not the latter is sensitive to variations in task instruction.…”

Theta oscillations predict the detrimental effects of memory retrieval

“…RIF, however, differs from directed forgetting in at least two important ways: RIF is unintentional and operates on an item level, whereas directed forgetting is intentional and operates on a list level (e.g., Kimball & Bjork, 2002). Together with the results from the Bäuml et al (2008) study, the present results therefore suggest that alpha oscillations might be involved only if inhibitory mechanisms are triggered intentionally and/or operate on a list level. Future work examining episodic forgetting in paradigms in which forgetting is intentional and occurs on an item level (e.g., think/no-think paradigm; Anderson & Green, 2001;Bergström, de Fockert, & RichardsonKlavehn, 2009;Hanslmayr, Leipold, Pastötter, & Bäuml, 2009) thus might improve our understanding of the role of alpha oscillations for episodic inhibition.…”