Abstract
The present study investigated whether the interaction between brooding, i.e., a negative component of cognitive processing in rumination, and emotional stimuli affects retrieval-induced forgetting. Healthy undergraduate and graduate students (N=37) participated in retrieval practice paradigm and filled out questionnaires. In the retrieval practice paradigm, correct recall rates during the test phase were measured. Results of an analysis of variance of correct recall rates, with the interaction between brooding scores (high vs. low), emotional stimuli (negative vs. neutral), and types of retrieval practice (Rp+, Rp− vs. Nrp） as independent variables, revealed that retrieval-induced forgetting did not occur for negative stimuli, but did occur for neutral stimuli in spite of brooding scores. In terms of inhibitory theory, these findings suggest that whether competition between memory representations activated by brooding and representations emotional stimuli have, and competition between emotional stimuli affects control processing in memory retrieval.
