A review of retrieval-induced forgetting in the contexts of learning, eyewitness memory, social cognition, autobiographical memory, and creative cognition

Retrieving information from memory can cause the forgetting of other information in memory, a phenomenon referred to as retrieval-induced forgetting. Over the past 20years, retrieval-induced forgetting has been observed in a variety of experimental contexts and has been argued to impact a number of cognitive and psychological processes. Not simply a laboratory phenomenon, retrieval-induced forgetting appears to have important implications for furthering our basic understanding of memory and behavior. In the present chapter, we provide a selective review of retrieval-induced forgetting in five contexts-learning and education, eyewitness memory, social cognition, autobiographical memory, and creative cognition-and discuss the importance of studying retrieval-induced forgetting in situations beyond the typical retrieval-practice paradigm.