Browsing by Subject "retrieval inhibition"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Are Mental Blocks Forgotten During Creative Problem Solving Due to Inhibitory Control?(2012-10-19) Angello, Genna MarieAttempting to retrieve a target from memory via a retrieval cue can cause competition from the cue's associates, which might block the target. A 1994 study by Anderson, Bjork, and Bjork demonstrated retrieval-induced forgetting for competing associates and suggested that inhibitory control resolving competition causes the forgetting. A 2011 study by Storm, Angello, and Bjork found forgetting for incorrect associates following creative problem solving. This thesis investigated whether such forgetting is also the result of inhibitory control. Competition was manipulated by instructing participants to remember or forget incorrect associates before working on a Remote Associates Test problem. If problem-solving-induced forgetting is caused by inhibition, then to-be-remembered associates should suffer more forgetting than to-be-forgotten associates. Overall, forgetting occurred for incorrect associates participants were instructed to remember and forget. However, the first quartile of trials showed forgetting only for to-be-remembered associates following longer problem solving durations, suggesting a possible role of inhibitory control as an active means to overcome fixation in creative problem solving.Item Failed Retrieval Attempts Foster Generation of Novel Responses(2014-07-31) Angello, Genna MarieNovel, or uncommon, responses in idea generation, creative problem solving, and divergent thinking are difficult to generate because they experience reduced memory accessibility caused by blocking or fixation from common, pre-potent responses. Research has demonstrated that fixation in problem solving can be alleviated through memory inhibition by reducing accessibility of pre-potent responses serving as incorrect answers. Based on this finding, the present investigation tested whether failed retrieval attempts, such as those used to demonstrate retrieval-induced-forgetting, could reduce accessibility of pre-potent responses and alleviate fixation in category generation, resulting in increased generation of novel responses. Three experiments demonstrated greater average novelty of generated members of categories that received impossible retrieval practice, in which participants failed to retrieve a member, than for those that did not. These results offer potential avenues of study into mechanisms for improving divergent thinking and creative problem solving.