PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Jessica J. White

MA-Research
May 2003

Stereotypes and Retrieval-Induced Forgetting: When Elderly Are Stronger than Their Middle-Aged Counterparts

    Previous research on retrieval-induced forgetting has demonstrated how repeatedly remembering certain items can inhibit the memory of other specific items in that same category (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994).  Further research extended these findings to an eyewitness paradigm (Shaw, Bjork, & Handal, 1995).  Interrogating participants on some of the information from a crime scene induced the forgetting of the non-interrogated information from the same crime scene.  This present research extended the prior studies by introducing and activating a stereotype before and during the retrieval-practice/recall exercise.  Participants were shown a photograph of an elderly man and a photograph of a middle-aged man.  These two men were defined as the suspects in a car accident case.  After hearing the case, participants were shown 10 traits for each man.  The 10 traits for the elderly man were stereotype congruent to common stereotypes of the elderly.  The 10 traits of the middle-aged man conveyed no stereotype.  The participants were then interrogated on 5 of the traits of 1 of the men.  Following the interrogation, participants were given a surprise cued-recall test.  When participants were interrogated on 5 of the non-stereotypic traits for the middle-aged man, retrieval-induced forgetting occurred, supporting previous research, However, when participants were interrogated on the stereotypic traits of the elderly man, the strength of the stereotypic traits allowed the participants to recall more of the non-interrogated traits of the elderly man, thus overriding retrieval-induced forgetting.  Therefore, when a stereotype was activated, the activated schema had the potential to override RIF.

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