(2011). Retrieval inhibition, sleep, and the resolving power of human memory. In , Successful Remembering and Successful Forgetting: Essays in Honor of Robert A. Bjork. presented at the North-Holland, North-Holland: Elsevier.
Abstract: The ever-changing environment in which we live often presents stark challenges for effective memory encoding and retrieval. In the face of these hurdles, we have developed a memory system that is not only flexible enough to inhibit prepotent responses so that more contextually appropriate, weaker responses can be retrieved and novel experiences can be incorporated into memory, but also a regular means by which the system’s relative levels of excitation and inhibition can be stabilized during sleep. The putative ability of sleep to reset inhibition broadly outlined in these pages is by no means complete, but we hope, nevertheless, that it serves to demonstrate how the truly germinative insights provided by Robert Bjork’s work can influence new generations of memory researchers. It is in this spirit we must pay close heed to Bjork’s call to move toward more neurologically plausible models of memory. Only then shall we begin to appreciate more fully the essence of his work and, in turn, advance the scientific exploration of human memory into exciting new realms. »Google Books
