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Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control

Author

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  • Michael C. Anderson

    (University of Oregon)

  • Collin Green

    (University of Oregon)

Abstract

Freud proposed that unwanted memories can be forgotten by pushing them into the unconscious, a process called repression1. The existence of repression has remained controversial for more than a century, in part because of its strong coupling with trauma, and the ethical and practical difficulties of studying such processes in controlled experiments. However, behavioural and neurobiological research on memory and attention shows that people have executive control processes directed at minimizing perceptual distraction2,3, overcoming interference during short and long-term memory tasks3,4,5,6,7 and stopping strong habitual responses to stimuli8,9,10,11,12,13. Here we show that these mechanisms can be recruited to prevent unwanted declarative memories from entering awareness, and that this cognitive act has enduring consequences for the rejected memories. When people encounter cues that remind them of an unwanted memory and they consistently try to prevent awareness of it, the later recall of the rejected memory becomes more difficult. The forgetting increases with the number of times the memory is avoided, resists incentives for accurate recall and is caused by processes that suppress the memory itself. These results show that executive control processes not uniquely tied to trauma may provide a viable model for repression.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael C. Anderson & Collin Green, 2001. "Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control," Nature, Nature, vol. 410(6826), pages 366-369, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6826:d:10.1038_35066572
    DOI: 10.1038/35066572
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sanne Ten Oever & Alexander T. Sack & Carina R. Oehrn & Nikolai Axmacher, 2021. "An engram of intentionally forgotten information," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Mihály Racsmány & Attila Keresztes & Péter Pajkossy & Gyula Demeter, 2012. "Mirroring Intentional Forgetting in a Shared-Goal Learning Situation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, January.
    3. Nan Chen & Zemin (Zachary) Zhong, 2024. "History and Country-of-Origin Effects," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 192-212, January.
    4. Rodrigo Araneda & Anne G De Volder & Naïma Deggouj & Laurent Renier, 2015. "Altered Inhibitory Control and Increased Sensitivity to Cross-Modal Interference in Tinnitus during Auditory and Visual Tasks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Zijian Zhu & Michael C. Anderson & Yingying Wang, 2022. "Inducing forgetting of unwanted memories through subliminal reactivation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Patzelt, Holger & Gartzia, Leire & Wolfe, Marcus T. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2021. "Managing negative emotions from entrepreneurial project failure: When and how does supportive leadership help employees?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    7. Li Zheng & Zhiyao Gao & Andrew S. McAvan & Eve A. Isham & Arne D. Ekstrom, 2021. "Partially overlapping spatial environments trigger reinstatement in hippocampus and schema representations in prefrontal cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.

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