Active intentional and unintentional forgetting in the laboratory and everyday life

Abstract

Forgetting can result from passive or active processes. Active forgetting includes purposefully trying to forget or retrieve competing information. Knowledge about active forgetting in humans is largely derived from controlled laboratory experiments, but similar forgetting occurs in everyday settings. In this Review, we discuss two major categories of active forgetting: one in which a person aims to forget (intentional forgetting), and the other in which a person does not (unintentional forgetting). In the laboratory, intentional forgetting occurs when a person forgets information after being directed to do so. Outside the laboratory, intentional forgetting occurs when unwanted information is forgotten volitionally, such as an incorrectly stated phone number or an upsetting experience. Unintentional forgetting in the laboratory occurs when retrieving information from memory actively induces the forgetting of related information. Unintentional forgetting outside the laboratory can also be trivial, such as which pumpkin your child selected at the pumpkin patch, or consequential, such as forgetting which jacket was worn by a perpetrator when witnessing a crime. We review efforts to map laboratory results onto everyday forgetting and make recommendations for future research, addressing everyday forgetting as well as clinical applications. Forgetting can be an intentional act or an unintentional side effect of other memory processes. In this Review, Fawcett et al. describe intentional and unintentional forgetting in laboratory and real-world settings, highlight alignment across these traditionally siloed research areas, and explore the role of forgetting in certain clinical conditions.