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Abstract:
Previous work has shown that retrieving an item from
long-term memory suppresses other representations that compete with
it during the recall process. The resulting impairment, known as
retrieval-induced forgetting, has been shown to be quite enduring,
lasting at least 20 minutes. In the present study, we applied the
methodology developed to isolate inhibitory processes in retrieval
induced forgetting to explore whether this phenomenon might serve
as a viable model for the role of inhibitory processes in lexical
ambiguity resolution. Four studies show that (a) recall, but not
mere exposure of one meaning of a word suppresses its alternative
meanings, (b) suppression occurs for the dominant, but not the
subordinate meaning of a word, and (c) the degree of suppression
builds with successive recall trials on the alternate meaning (up
to 20 trials). In addition, the impairment in these studies was
observed with a method that is particularly diagnostic of
inhibition--the independent probe method--and thus cannot be
attributed to alternative non-inhibitory sources of interference
such as response blocking and resource diffusion. These properties
of inhibition exhibited here parallel those found in other studies
of retrieval-induced forgetting, suggesting a domain-general
suppression process at work in ambiguity resolution.
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