Recall of a particular memory often involves its selection from several memories which are similar to it. Although these other memories are irrelevant, their similarity to the “target” memory leads to competition for retrieval, placing demands on the cognitive mechanisms by which the correct memory is selected.

A new study by researchers at Stanford University now shows that forgetting may be part of the process of remembering. Anthony Wagner and his colleagues at the Stanford Memory Laboratory provide evidence that the active suppression by the brain of competing memories is essential for proper memory function. Their findings – that to remember something involves forgetting something similar – have been published online in Nature Neuroscience. [Read more at Neurophilosophy.]