Selectively retrieving an item associated with a cue from long-term memory reduces the accessibility
of other items associated with the same cue, which is known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). The purpose
of this study is to prove the cue independence of RIF through independence probe technique and to explore the
type of inhibition mechanism.
Experiment 1 investigates different inhibition levels of participants’ RIF, cross-category inhibition and secondorder inhibition, which investigate the cue independence of RIF. Experiment 2 explores the RIF on different
levels of inhibition under different material category relationship and purpose of this study is to examine the
inhibition mechanism deeply.
The results are as follows: (1) in experiment 1, there are RIF, cross-category inhibition and second-order
inhibition in the research, but no significant differences between high and low inhibition level groups. (2) in
experiment 2, there are no significant differences between high and low inhibition level groups under both
category relationship, but the RIF of the related condition is greater than the RIF of the unrelated condition
significantly.
The emergence of cross-category inhibition and second-order inhibition proves the cue independence of RIF
and demonstrates the inhibition mechanism of RIF. There are no significant differences between high and low
inhibition level groups under both category relationship, which indicates an unconscious automated inhibition
mechanism.