Inhibitory Control of Information in Memory Across Domains

Abstract

Knowledge in memory is vast and not always relevant to the task at hand. Recent views suggest that the human cognitive system has evolved so that it includes goal-driven control mechanisms to regulate the level of activation of specific pieces of knowledge and make distracting or unwanted information in memory less accessible. This operation is primarily directed to facilitate the use of task-relevant knowledge. However, these control processes may also have side effects on performance in a variety of situations when the task at hand partly relies on access to suppressed information. In this article, we show that various types of information to be used in a variety of different contexts (problem solving, decision making based on personal information, language production) may be the target of inhibitory control. We also show that the control process may leave a behavioral signature if suppressed information turns out to be relevant shortly after being suppressed.