Resumen de Influence of the typicality of the actions in a mugging script on retrieval-induced forgetting
Malen Migueles Seco, Elvira García Bajos
Research has demonstrated that the act of remembering can prompt temporary forgetting or inhibition of related contents in memory. This study extends the retrieval-induced forgetting effect to the recall of actions of an event. Based on a normative data study, high- and low-typicality actions of a mugging event were selected. The participants studied verified facts (hightypicality actions) and non-verified facts (low-typicality actions). They then practiced retrieving half of the high- or low-typicality actions of the event, and a non-practice control group was added. In the final task the three groups tried to recall both verified and non-verified facts of the event. Conventional retrieval-induced forgetting was found for low-typicality actions, but a comparable forgetting effect did not emerge in the hightypicality actions. This finding suggests that the activation of scripts may protect typical event information from retrieval-induced forgetting. The integration of the script actions makes them resistant to inhibitory processes.
