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The recovery of blocked memories in repeated recall tests
Author(s) -
Gunawan Kris,
Gerkens David R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712610x528990
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , metamemory , cognitive psychology , free recall , repeated measures design , misinformation , developmental psychology , cognition , statistics , neuroscience , metacognition , computer science , computer security , mathematics
There is continued controversy over the possibility of blocked and subsequently recovered accurate memories. Memory blocking produced by a retrieval biasing procedure followed by recovery through repeated testing was demonstrated in two experiments. Predictions derived from the retrieval bias explanation and from the level of cumulative recall (LOCR) concerning hypermnesia for blocked material were tested. Expt 1 disconfirmed the retrieval bias hypothesis that the blocked material would remain blocked. However, there was no accelerated recovery despite the lower rate of recall for the bias group compared to the control group as predicted based on LOCR. Expt 2 replicated the Expt 1 findings and used metamemory tasks to further explore the recovery process. The data led the authors to conclude that accurate recovery of memory with corresponding high confidence is possible through repeated testing provided suggestive questioning and misinformation are not presented.