Unconscious memory suppression

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that high-level executive control can occur unconsciously. In this study, we tested whether unconscious executive control extends to memory retrieval and forgetting. In a first experiment, participants learned word-word associations and were trained to either actively recall or forget theses associations in response to conscious visual cues (Think/No-Think paradigm). Then, the very same cues were subliminally presented while participants were performing a grammatical gender categorization task on distinct word pairs. Memory retrieval tested a few minutes later was significantly influenced by conscious and masked cues, suggesting that memory recall could be manipulated unbeknownst to the participants. In a second experiment, we replicated these findings and added a baseline condition in which some words were not preceded by masked cues. Memory recall was significantly reduced both when words were preceded by an unconscious instruction to forget compared to the baseline condition (i.e. no cue), and to the unconscious instructions to recall. Overall, our results suggest that executive control can occur unconsciously and suppress a specific memory outside of one's awareness.

Keywords: Cognitive control; Memory; Repression; Subliminal perception; Unconscious processes.