Retrieval-induced forgetting in a category recognition task

Abstract

Prior work on retrieval-induced forgetting showed that retrieving a subset of formerly studied items can impair item recognition of related, nonretrieved material. Here it was investigated whether retrieval practice can also impair the items' recognition as a member of a studied category. Subjects studied preexperimentally unrelated words that were categorized by their font colors, then practiced retrieving a subset of the words using a word stem completion task. Finally, an episodic category recognition test based on confidence ratings was applied. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of the data demonstrated a reliable impairment in subjects' recognition of the nonretrieved items' category relative to control items. The result indicates that retrieval-induced forgetting is not restricted to item recognition but generalizes to category recognition tasks. Inhibitory as well as noninhibitory explanations of the finding are discussed.