Toward a science of silence: The consequences of leaving a memory unsaid

Perspectives on Psychological Science

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 39-53

  Stone, Charles B ^a   Coman, Alin ^b   Brown, Adam D ^c   Koppel, Jonathan ^d   Hirst, William ^e  

^a UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN   (Belgium)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

^c NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

^d AARHUS UNIVERSITY   (Denmark)

^e NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH   (United States)

Author keywords

collective memory; covertness; forgetting; intentionality; relatedness; retrieval induced forgetting; silence

Indexed keywords

EID: 84855380558     PISSN: 17456916     EISSN: 17456924     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1745691611427303     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Hjelmsäter E. R.,Granhag P. A.,Strömwall L. A.,Memon A.The effects of social influence on children's memory reports: The omission and commission error asymmetry.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. 2008;49:507-513.
2. Akçam T.A shameful act: The Armenian genocide and the question of Turkish responsibility. New York, NY: Metropolitan; 2006:.
3. A. P. DePrince (Eds.), Trauma and cognitive science: A meeting of minds, science, and human experience (pp. 185-210). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
4. Anderson M. C.Rethinking interference theory: Executive control and the mechanisms of forgetting.Journal of Memory and Language. 2003;49:415-445.
5. Anderson M. C.,Bell T. A.Forgetting our facts: The role of inhibitory processes in the loss of propositional knowledge.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 2001;130:544-570.
6. Anderson M. C.,Bjork E. L.,Bjork R. A.Retrieval-induced forgetting: Evidence for a recall-specific mechanism.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2000;7:522-530.
7. Anderson M. C.,Bjork R. A.,Bjork E. L.Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1994;20:1063-1087.
8. Anderson M. C.,Green C.Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control.Nature. 2001;410:366-369.
9. Anderson M. C.,Green C.,McCulloch K. C.Similarity and inhibition in long-term memory: Evidence for a two-factor model.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2000;26:1141-1159.
10. Anderson M. C.,Levy B. J.Suppressing unwanted memories.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2009;18:189-194.
11. Anderson M. C.,McCulloch K. C.Integration as a general boundary condition on retrieval-induced forgetting.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1999;25:608-629.
12. Anderson M. C.,Spellman B. A.On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: Memory retrieval as a model case.Psychological Review. 1995;102:68-100.
13. Asch S.Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority.Psychological Monographs. 1956;70 (9).
14. Assmann J.Collective memory and cultural identity.New German Critique. 1995;65:125-133.
15. Bahrick H. P.Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 1984;113:1-29.
16. Barnier A. J.,Hung J.,Conway M. A.Retrieval-induced forgetting of emotional and unemotional autobiographical memories.Cognition & Emotion. 2004;18:457-477.
17. Basden B. H.,Basden D. R.,Bryner S.,Thomas R. L.A comparison of group and individual remembering: Does collaboration disrupt retrieval strategies?.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1997;23:1176-1191.
18. Bäuml K.Revisiting an old issue: Retroactive interference as a function of the degree of original and interpolated learning.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 1996;3:380-384.
19. Bäuml K.The list-strength effect: Strength-dependent competition or suppression.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 1997;4:260-264.
20. Bäuml K.Semantic recall can cause episodic forgetting.Psychological Science. 2002;13:356-360.
21. Bäuml K.-H.,Kuhbandner C.Remembering can cause forgetting-But not in negative moods.Psychological Science. 2007;18:111-115.
22. Ben-Zeev, E., Ginio, R.,Winter, J. (Ed.). (2010). Shadows of war: A social history of silence in the twentieth century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
23. Bergtstöm Z. M.,de Fockert J. W.,Richardson-Klavehn A.ERP and behavioural evidence for direct suppression of unwanted memories.NeuroImage. 2009;48:726-737.
24. Blaxton T. A.,Neely J. H.Inhibition from semantically related primes: Evidence of a category-specific retrieval inhibition.Memory & Cognition. 1983;11:500-510.
25. Blumen H. M.,Rajaram S.Influence of re-exposure and retrieval disruption during group collaboration on later individual recall.Memory. 2008;16:231-244.
26. Bok S.Lying. New York, NY: Random House; 1978:.
27. Bok S.Lying: Moral choice in public and private life. New York, NY: Vintage Books; 1999:.
28. Brockmeier, J.,Carbaugh, D. A. (Eds.). (2001). Narrative and identity: Studies in autobiography, self and culture. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing.
29. Brown A. D.,Kramer M.,Romano T.,Hirst W.Forgetting trauma: Socially shared retrieval induced forgetting and posttraumatic stress disorder.Applied Cognitive Psychology. 2011;:.
30. Bruner J.Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1990:.
31. Bruner J.Life as narrative.Social Research. 2004;70:691-710.
32. Butler K. M.,Williams C. C.,Zacks R. T.,Maki R. H.A limit on retrieval-induced forgetting.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2001;27:1314-1319.
33. Butler S.The conspiracy of silence: The trauma of incest. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press; 1996:.
34. Cairns, E., & Roe, M. D. (Eds.). (2003). The role of memory in ethnic conflict. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
35. Carroll M.,Campbell-Ratcliffe J.,Murnane H.,Perfect T.Retrieval-induced forgetting in educational contexts: Monitoring, expertise, text integration, and test format.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 2007;19:580-606.
36. Chan J. C. K.When does retrieval induced forgetting and when does it induce facilitation? Implications for retrieval inhibition, testing effect, and text processing.Journal of Memory and Language. 2009;61:153-170.
37. Chan J. C. K.Long-term effects of testing on the recall of nontested materials.Memory. 2010;18:49-57.
38. Chan J. C. K.,McDermott K. B.,Roediger H. L.Retrieval-induced facilitation: Initially nontested material can benefit from prior testing of related material.Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2006;135:553-571.
39. Ciranni M. A.,Shimamura A. P.Retrieval-induced forgetting in episodic memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1999;25:1403-1414.
40. Cohen S.States of denial: Knowing about atrocities and suffering. New York, NY: Polity; 2001:.
41. Coman A.,Hirst W.The propagation of socially shared retrieval induced forgetting in social networks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 2011;:.
42. Coman A.,Manier D.,Hirst W.Forgetting the unforgettable through conversation: Socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting of September 11 memories.Psychological Science. 2009;20:627-633.
43. Conway, M. A. (2001). Repression revisited. Nature, 410, 319-320.
44. Conway M. A.,Fthenaki A.Disruption of inhibitory control of memory following lesions to the frontal and temporal lobes.Cortex. 2003;39:667-686.
45. Cuc A.,Koppel J.,Hirst W.Silence is not golden: A case for socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting.Psychological Science. 2007;18:727-733.
46. Dalgleish T.,Yiend J.,Schweizer S.,Dunn B. D.Ironic effects of emotion suppression when recounting distressing memories.Emotion. 2009;9:744-749.
47. Dehli L.,Brennen T.Does retrieval-induced forgetting occur for emotional stimuli?.Cognition & Emotion. 2009;23:1056-1068.
48. Dodd M. D.,Castel A. D.,Roberts K. E.A strategy disruption component to retrieval-induced forgetting.Memory & Cognition. 2006;34:102-111.
49. Ebbinghaus H.Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York, NY: Dover; 1964:.
50. Echterhoff G.,Higgins E. T.,Levine J. M.Shared reality: Experiencing commonality with others' inner states about the world.Psychological Science. 2009;4:496-521.
51. Edelson M.,Sharot T.,Dolan R. J.,Dudai Y.Following the crowd: Brain substrates of long-term memory conformity.Science. 2011;333:108-111.
52. Freud S.Repression.Standard Edition. 1915;14:143-158.
53. Freyd J. J.Betrayal trauma: The logic of forgetting childhood abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1996:.
54. Garcia-Bajos E.,Migueles M.,Anderson M. C.Script knowledge modulates retrieval-induced forgetting for eyewitness events.Memory. 2008;17:92-103.
55. Gardiner, J. M.,Richardson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and knowing. In E. Tulving F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of memory (pp. 229-244). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
56. Geraerts E.,McNally R. J.Forgetting unwanted memories: Directed forgetting and thought suppression methods.Acta Psychologica. 2008;127:614-622.
57. Greene R. L.Human memory: Paradigms and paradoxes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1992:.
58. Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, speech acts (Vol. 3., pp. 41-58). New York, NY: Academic Press.
59. Harris C. B.,Paterson H. M.,Kemp R. I.Collaborative recall and collective memory: What happens when we remember together?.Memory. 2008;16:213-230.
60. Herman J. L.Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1997:.
61. Hicks J. L.,Starns J. J.Retrieval-induced forgetting occurs in tests of item recognition.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2004;11:125-130.
62. Higgins E. T.,Rholes W. S."Saying is believing": Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person described.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1978;14:363-378.
63. Hintzman D. L.Research strategy in the study of memory: Fads, fallacies, and the search for the "coordinates of truth.".Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2011;6:253-271.
64. Hirst, W. (2010). The contribution of mnemonic malleability to collective memory. In P A. Reuter-Lorenz, K. Baynes, G. R. Mangun, & E. A. Phelps (Eds.), The cognitive neuroscience of the mind: A tribute to Michael S. Gazzaniga (pp. 139-154). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
65. Hirst W.,Echterhoff G.Creating shared memories in conversation: Toward a psychology of collective memory.Social Research: An International Quarterly. 2008;75:183-216.
66. Hirst W.,Echterhoff G.Collaborative remembering and collective memory.Annual Review of Psychology. 2012;63:21.1-21.25.
67. Hirst W.,Manier D.Towards a psychology of collective memory.Memory. 2008;16:183-200.
68. Holmes, D. S. (1990). The evidence for repression: An examination of sixty years of research. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), Repression and dissociation: Implications for personality theory, psychopathology, and health (pp. 85-102). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
69. Kaplan R. D.Balkan ghosts: A journey through history. New York, NY: Picador; 2005:.
70. Karpicke J. D.,Roediger H. L.Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention.Journal of Memory and Language. 2007;57:151-162.
71. Kashima, Y., Klein, O.,Clark, A. E. (2007). Grounding: Sharing information in social interaction. In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 27-77). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
72. Kihlstrom J.No need for repression.Trends in Cognitive Science. 2002;6:502.
73. Kleinedler, S. R. (Ed.). (2001). The American heritage dictionary (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
74. KoppelJ.WohlD.MeksinR.HirstW. (2011). The contrasting effect of expertise on social contagion and socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting. Manuscript in preparation.
75. Koutstaal, W.,Schacter, D. L. (1997). Intentional forgetting and voluntary thought suppression: Two potential methods for coping with childhood trauma. In D. Spiegel (Ed.), Repressed memories: Vol. 16. Review of psychiatry (pp. 79-121). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
76. Kuhbandner C.,Bäuml K.-H.,Stiedl F. C.Retrieval-induced forgetting of negative stimuli: The role of emotional intensity.Cognition & Emotion. 2009;23:817-830.
77. Levine J. M.,Murphy G.The learning and forgetting of controversial material.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1943;38:507-517.
78. Levy B. J.,Anderson M. C.Individual differences in the suppression of unwanted memories: The executive deficit hypothesis.Acta Psychologica. 2008;127:623-635.
79. MacLeod M. D.,Macrae C. N.Gone but not forgotten: The transient nature of retrieval-induced forgetting.Psychological Science. 2001;12:148-152.
80. Macrae C. N.,Bodenhausen G. V.,Milne A. B.,Jetten J.Out of mind but back in sight: Stereotypes on the rebound.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1994;67:808-817.
81. Margalit A.The ethics of memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2002:.
82. Marsh E.Retelling is not the same as recalling: Implications for memory.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2007;16:16-20.
83. Martin, L. L., & Tesser, A. (1989). Toward a motivational and structural theory of ruminative thought. In J. S. Uleman & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 306-326). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
84. McAdams D. P.Stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 1997:.
85. MeadeM. L.RoedigerH. L.III. (2002). Explorations in the social contagion of memory. Memory & Cognition, 30, 995-1009. Retrieved from http://psycho.wustl.edu.
86. Meudell P. R.,Hitch G. J.,Kirby P.Are two heads better than one? Experimental investigations of the social facilitation of memory.Applied Cognitive Psychology. 1992;6:525-543.
87. Moulds M. L.,Kandris E.The effect of practice on recall of negative material in dysphoria.Journal of Affective Disorders. 2006;91:269-272.
88. Myers J. L.,O'Brien E. J.,Balota D. A.,Toyofuku M. L.Memory search without interference: The role of integration.Cognitive Psychology. 1984;16:217-242.
89. Olick J.The politics of regret: On collective memory and political responsibility. New York, NY: Routledge; 2007:.
90. Passerini, L. (2003). Memories between silence and oblivion. In K. Hodgkin & S. Rodstone (Eds.), Contested pasts, the politics of memory (pp. 238-254). New York, NY: Routledge.
91. Patterson D.The shriek of silence: A phenomenology of the Holocaust novel. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky; 1992:.
92. Pennebaker, J. W., Paez, D., & Rime, B. (Eds.). (1997). Collective memory of political events: Social psychological perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
93. Rajaram S.,Pereira-Pasarin L. P.Collaborative memory: Cognitive research and theory.Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2010;5:649-663.
94. Ricoeur P.Memory, history, forgetting. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2004:.
95. Roediger H. L.,Karpicke J. D.Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention.Psychological Science. 2006;17:249-255.
96. Román P.,Soriano M. F.,Gómez-Ariza C. J.,Bajo M. T.Retrieval-induced forgetting and executive control.Psychological Science. 2009;20:1053-1058.
97. Rosenberg T.The haunted land: Facing Europe's ghosts after communism. New York, NY: Random House; 1995:.
98. Rubin D. C.On the retention function for autobiographical memory.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1982;21:21-38.
99. Sahdra B.,Ross M.Group identification and historical memory.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2007;33:384-395.
100. Saunders J.,Fernandes M.,Kosnes L.Retrieval-induced forgetting and mental imagery.Memory & Cognition. 2009;37:819-828.
101. Saunders J.,MacLeod M. D.New evidence on the suggestibility of memory: The role of retrieval-induced forgetting in misinformation effects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 2002;8:127-142.
102. Schacter D. L.Implicit memory: History and current status.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1987;13:501-518.
103. Schacter D. L.The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin; 2001:.
104. Schwabe L.,Wolf O. T.Stress impairs the reconsolidation of autobiographical memories.Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 2010;94:153-157.
105. Scott J. C.Domination and the art of resistance: Hidden transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 1990:.
106. Shaw J. S.,Bjork R. A.,Handal A.Retrieval-induced forgetting in an eyewitness-memory paradigm.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 1995;2:249-253.
107. Shivde G.,Anderson M. C.On the consequences of meaning selection: Perspectives on resolving lexical ambiguity. Gorfein D. S., ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2001:175-190.
108. Smith E. E.,Adams N. E.,Schorr D.Fact retrieval and the paradox of interference.Cognitive Psychology. 1978;10:438-464.
109. SmithM. A.RoedigerH. L.(2011). Covert retrieval practice benefits retention as much as overt retrieval practice. Manuscript in preparation.
110. Smith S. M.,Vela E.Environmental context-dependent memory: A review and meta-analysis.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2001;8:203-220.
111. SpenceD. P. (1983). Narrative persuasion. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 6, 457-481. Retrieved from http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=pct.006.0457a.
112. Sperber D.,Wilson D.Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford, England: Blackwell; 1986:.
113. Stone C. B.,Barnier A. J.,Sutton J.,Hirst W.Building consensus about the past: Schema consistency and convergence in socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting.Memory. 2010;18:170-184.
114. StoneC. B.BarnierA. J.SuttonJ.HirstW. (2011). Forgetting our personal past: Socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting for autobiographical memories. Manuscript in preparation.
115. Storm B. C.,Bjork E. L.,Bjork R. A.,Nestojko J. F.Is retrieval success a necessary condition for retrieval-induced forgetting?.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2006;13:1023-1027.
116. Sturken M.Tangled memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic, and the politics of remembering. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1997:.
117. Terr L.Child traumas: An outline and overview.Focus. 2003;1:322-334.
118. Tomlinson T. D.,Huber D. E.,Rieth C. A.,Davelaar E. J.An interference account of cue-independent forgetting in the no-think paradigm.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2009;106:155588-155593.
119. Tulving E.,Pearlstone Z.Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for word.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1966;5:381-391.
120. Vinitzky-Seroussi V.Yitzhak Rabin's assassination and the dilemmas of commemoration. Albany: State University of New York; 2009:.
121. Wagner-Pacifici R.,Schwartz B.The Vietnam Memorial: Commemorating a difficult past.American Journal of Sociology. 1991;97:376-420.
122. Wegner D. M.Ironic processes of mental control.Psychological Review. 1994;101:34-52.
123. Wegner D. M.When the antidote is the poison: Ironic mental control processes.Psychological Science. 1997;9:148-150.
124. Wegner D. M.,Lane J. D.,Dimitri S.The allure of secret relationships.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1994;66:287-300.
125. Wegner D. M.,Schneider D. J.,Carter S. R.,White T. L.Paradoxical effects of thought suppression.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1987;53:5-13.
126. Wegner D. M.,Schneider D. J.,Knutson B.,McMahon S. R.Polluting the stream of consciousness: The effect of thought suppression on the mind's environment.Cognitive Therapy and Research. 1991;15:141-152.
127. Weldon M. S.,Bellinger K. D.Collective memory: Collaborative and individual processes in remembering.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1997;23:1160-1175.
128. Weldon M. S.,Blair C.,Huebsch P. D.Group remembering: Does social loafing underlie collaborative inhibition?.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2000;26:1568-1577.
129. Williams C. C.,Zacks R. T.Is retrieval-induced forgetting an inhibitory process?.American Journal of Psychology. 2001;114:329-354.
130. Williams S.-J.,Wright D. B.,Freeman N. H.Inhibiting children's memory of an interactive event: The effectiveness of a cover-up.Applied Cognitive Psychology. 2002;16:651-664.
131. Winter J.Remembering war: The great war between history and memory in the twentieth century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2006:.
132. Wixted J. T.A theory about why we forget what we once knew.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2005;14:6-9.
133. Wright D. B.,Loftus E. F.How misinformation alters memories.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 1998;71:155-164.
134. Zerubavel E.Social mindscapes: An invitation to cognitive sociology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1999:.
135. Zerubavel E.The elephant in the room: Silence and denial in everyday life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2007:.
136. Zerubavel Y.Recovered roots: Collective memory and the making of Israeli national tradition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1995:.
137. Zolberg V.Contested remembrance: The Hiroshima exhibit controversy.Theory and Society. 1998;27:565-590.