Recent Press Coverage

        -MSNBC: Want to improve your memory?  Oh forget it!
        -The Telegraph: Can't remember the names of Beckham's children?  Then lucky you for avoiding the acquisition of trivia
        -Huffington Post: Why forgetting is good for your memory
        -PsychCentral: How forgetting helps memory

Though unintuitive, forgetting is critical for the efficient and adaptive functioning of human memory.  Without a means of suppressing or setting aside information that has become outdated or irrelevant,  it would become increasingly difficult to remember new and relevant information.  The focus of our research is to better understand the mechanisms and consequences of this adaptive form of forgetting.

When attempting to retrieve a target item from memory, non-target items associated with the same retrieval cue can become activated, creating competition, and requiring that the items causing that competition be selected against, or inhibited.  This inhibition may explain a rather unintuitive observation—that retrieving some items from memory causes the forgetting of other items in memory, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994).  Although inhibition may seem like a reasonable explanation of retrieval-induced forgetting, others have argued that it can be better explained by factors such as blocking or associative interference.  Our research has strongly supported the inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting and helped elucidate the nature of the processes that underlie this forgetting (e.g., Little, Storm, & Bjork, 2011; Storm & Angello, 2010; Storm, Bjork, & Bjork, 2005; 2007; 2008; in press; Storm, Bjork, Bjork, & Nestojko, 2006; Storm & Jobe, 2012; in press; Storm & Nestojko, 2010; Storm & White, 2010; for reviews see Storm, 2011a; 2011b; Storm & Levy, 2012). 

Individuals who are the most creative are often the least capable of controlling their thoughts and actions.  Yet, there may be conditions in which inhibition has the power to enhance creative cognition.  Many creative tasks are difficult because old and inappropriate ideas cause mental fixation (see Smith, 2003), thus preventing the generation of new and appropriate ideas.  Our research suggests that inhibition can facilitate creative thinking and problem solving by providing a means by which to overcome this fixation (Koppel & Storm, under review; Storm & Angello, 2010).  Interestingly, we have also found that attempting to solve a problem can cause the forgetting of irrelevant and inappropriate information, a phenomenon we refer to as problem-solving-induced forgetting (Storm, Angello, & Bjork, 2011; Storm & Koppel, 2012; for a review see Storm, 2011b).

Forgetting Emotional/Traumatic Information

William James argued that forgetting can be as important a function as recollecting, and such is certainly the case in regard to painful autobiographical memories.  We often experience events that we would prefer to never remember or think about again, and inhibition may underlie our ability to do so.  Our interests include the suppression and recovery of emotional/traumatic autobiographical memories, the processes by which such memories are shaped and distorted over time, and the consequences of this forgetting on our well-being and the perception of others (e.g., Storm & Jobe, in press; Storm, Bjork, & Bjork, 2005). 

Memory, Metamemory, and Learning

There is great potential to apply the principles of cognitive psychology to enhance learning.  In educational contexts, students and teachers tend to create conditions of learning that facilitate effortless acquisition and high levels of immediate performance.  After a delay, however,  these conditions are clearly not  as effective as they appear to be (Bjork, 1994, 1999).  The crux of the problem seems to lie in people’s view of forgetting as the undoing of learning, rather than as a critical component of learning.  In fact, research has shown that manipulations that induce forgetting between learning opportunities often lead to better long-term retention than manipulations that prevent forgetting.  In this line of research we are exploring the mechanisms by which forgetting and difficulty serve as enablers of future learning.  Issues under investigation include spacing, generation, testing, test scheduling, highlighting, and various metamemory considerations related to learning (Bjork & Storm; 2011; Bjork, Storm, & DeWinstanley, 2011; Little, Storm, & Bjork, 2011; Storm, Bjork, & Castel, in prep; Storm, Bjork, & Kornell, in prep; Storm, Bjork, & Storm, 2010; Bjork, DeWinstanley, & Storm, 2007; Storm, Bjork, & Friedman, in prep).