Often stimuli in the world remind us of experiences or ideas with little effort, showing that retrieval can proceed automatically. Though this automaticity is useful, there are times when it poses problems that require cognitive control to resolve. Sometimes, we need to recall a particular experience or fact from memory, even though the cues may remind us of other things that cause interference. Other times, cues may call to mind memories we would rather not think about. In each case, the automatic retrieval of a memory is unwanted because it is distracting or upsetting. Both situations trigger a control response to handle excess activation on the undesired memories. Much of the work in this programme focuses on the nature of these control processes, with a special focus on inhibitory control in regulating excess accessibility of activated memories. Our unique approach focuses on careful documentation of the after effects of inhibition on suppressed traces, and ties those aftereffects to their neural origins. We thus study the role of inhibitory control in memory through a multi-level approach using behavioural, fMRI, and EEG methods. Understanding these mechanisms has significant translational relevance to how people control unwanted memories, providing a novel model of adaptive processes that contribute to both incidental and motivated forgetting.
Projects
Relevant publications
Anderson, M.C. & Green, C. (2001). Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature, v410, n 6826, 131-134.
Anderson, M.C., Ochsner, K., Kuhl, B., Cooper, J., Robertson, E., Gabrieli, S.W., Glover, G., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2004). Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science, V 303, 232-235.
Anderson, M.C., & Levy, B (2009). Suppressing unwanted memories. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 18 (4) 189-194.
Benoit, R., & Anderson, M.C. (2012). Opposing mechanisms support the voluntary forgetting of unwanted memories. Neuron, 76, 450-460.
Levy, B.J., & Anderson, M.C. (2012). Purging of memories from conscious awareness tracked in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience. 32, 16785-16794.
Relevant publications
Anderson, M.C., Bjork, R.A., & Bjork, E.L. (1994). Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 20, 1063-1087.
Anderson, M.C., & Spellman, B.A. (1995). On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: Memory retrieval as a model case. Psychological Review, 102, 68-100.
Anderson, M.C. (2003). Rethinking interference theory: Executive control and the mechanisms of forgetting. Invited featured paper, Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 415-445.
Relevant publications
Anderson, M.C., Ochsner, K., Kuhl, B., Cooper, J., Robertson, E., Gabrieli, S.W., Glover, G., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2004). Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science, V 303, 232-235.
Anderson, M.C., & Weaver, C. (2009). Inhibitory control over action and memory. In L. Squire (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Elsevier.
Relevant publications
Anderson, M.C., & Huddleston, E. (2011). Towards a Cognitive and Neurobiological Model of Motivated Forgetting. In Belli, R. F. (Ed.), True and false recovered memories: Toward a reconciliation of the debate. Vol. 58: Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. New York: Springer.
Paz-Alonso, P.M., Ghetti, S., Matlen, B.J., Anderson, M.C., & Bunge, S.A. (2009)
Memory suppression is an active process that improves over childhood. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 3, 1-6
Anderson, M.C., Reinholz, J., & Kuhl, B. & Mayr, U. (2011). Intentional suppression of unwanted memories grows more difficult as we age. Psychology and Aging. 26, 397-405.
Levy, B.J., & Anderson, M.C. (2008). Individual differences in suppressing unwanted memories: the executive deficit hypothesis. Acta Psychologica, 127, 623-635.
Benoit, R., & Anderson, M.C. (2012). Opposing mechanisms support the voluntary forgetting of unwanted memories. Neuron, 76, 450-460.
2. Roland Benoit. Postdoctoral Fellow–Investigator Scientist
3. Maria Wimber. Postdoctoral Fellow, Visiting Scientist
4. Jon Fawcett. Postdoctoral Fellow, Visiting Scientist
5. Charlotte Kuepper. Masters Student, Visiting Scientist