Abstract
Remembering some of the studied items (target) impairs subsequent remembrance of the relevant items. This phenomenon is called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) and is explained by suppression account which suppresses interference from the competing items in order to facilitate the retrieval of the target (Anderson, 2003). Retrieval specificity (RIF occurs when the target is retrieved, however, RIF does not occur when the target is simply presented) is one of the properties supporting suppression account. This property cannot explain by change of associative strength, such as blocking. We examined whether RIF influence by any types of retrieval practice (normal, last-letter, or category-name) using within-participant design. The results showed that RIF did not occur in the last-letter and the category-name retrieval condition. These results may reflect the property of the retrieval specificity. However, we could not replicate RIF in the normal retrieval condition. Because the number of items per condition decreased, we might not be able to detect the effect well. From these results, we need to discuss the relationship between detection of inhibitory effect and the number of items per condition.
