ARTICLE NO. 0011 Continuing Influences of To-Be-Forgotten Information

In the present paper, we first argue that it is critical for humans to forget; that is, to have some means of preventing out-of-date information from interfering with the recall of current information. We then argue that the primary means of accomplishing such adaptive updating of human memory is retrieval inhibition: Information that is rendered out of date by new learning becomes less retrievable, but remains at essentially full strength in memory as indexed by other measures, such as recognition and word-fragment completion. We conclude with a speculation that certain unconscious influences of prior events may, in fact, be stronger if those events were to be forgotten rather than to be remembered. 1996 Academic Press, Inc. Many situations in the real world cue us—directly or indirectly—to forget. At one time or another, we have all probably said, or had said to us, expressions like the following: ‘‘Oh, forget that. I read the wrong address. Here’s the correct one.’ ’ Or, ‘‘Forget that! Here’s a better way to get there.’’ Such explicit situations are greatly outnumbered by situations where a cue to forget is implicit, but nonetheless clear. Everyday illustrations are the need to remembe