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Background <p>Aging is associated with changes in intentional forgetting, with a smaller directed forgetting (DF) effect in older than in younger adults. The inhibition account attributes age-related reductions in the DF effect to a failure to suppress to-be-forgotten (TBF) items, predicting better TBF memory in older adults. By contrast, the cognitive load hypothesis attributes this reduction to a general resource limitation that disproportionately impairs the encoding of to-be-remembered (TBR) items, predicting a larger age deficit for TBR than for TBF items.</p> Methods <p> This meta-analysis tested these predictions by separately synthesizing the effects of age on TBR and TBF memory, using the item-method DF paradigm.</p> Results <p> Based on 88 effect sizes from 21 studies, a three-level meta-analysis revealed a significant age deficit for TBR items (g = 0.379, SE = 0.12, t = 3.08, p &lt; .001, 95% CI [0.135, 0.623]), but a non-significant effect for TBF items (g = 0.050, SE = 0.08, t = 0.59, p = .555, 95% CI [− 0.117, 0.216]). Moderator analyses emphasized the role of cognitive resources: processing requirements, free recall tests, and laboratory settings amplified the age deficit, particularly for TBF items. More years of education in older adults attenuated these age differences.</p> Conclusions <p> These findings are more consistent with the cognitive load hypothesis than with the inhibition account, although the two accounts need not be mutually exclusive, given that certain conditions under which inhibition might emerge were not directly testable in the present meta-analysis.</p>

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Age-related decline in directed forgetting: a meta-analytic test of inhibition versus cognitive load accounts

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

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  • Chenyu Pan,
  • Nan Jiang,
  • Fuhong Li

摘要

Background

Aging is associated with changes in intentional forgetting, with a smaller directed forgetting (DF) effect in older than in younger adults. The inhibition account attributes age-related reductions in the DF effect to a failure to suppress to-be-forgotten (TBF) items, predicting better TBF memory in older adults. By contrast, the cognitive load hypothesis attributes this reduction to a general resource limitation that disproportionately impairs the encoding of to-be-remembered (TBR) items, predicting a larger age deficit for TBR than for TBF items.

Methods

This meta-analysis tested these predictions by separately synthesizing the effects of age on TBR and TBF memory, using the item-method DF paradigm.

Results

Based on 88 effect sizes from 21 studies, a three-level meta-analysis revealed a significant age deficit for TBR items (g = 0.379, SE = 0.12, t = 3.08, p < .001, 95% CI [0.135, 0.623]), but a non-significant effect for TBF items (g = 0.050, SE = 0.08, t = 0.59, p = .555, 95% CI [− 0.117, 0.216]). Moderator analyses emphasized the role of cognitive resources: processing requirements, free recall tests, and laboratory settings amplified the age deficit, particularly for TBF items. More years of education in older adults attenuated these age differences.

Conclusions

These findings are more consistent with the cognitive load hypothesis than with the inhibition account, although the two accounts need not be mutually exclusive, given that certain conditions under which inhibition might emerge were not directly testable in the present meta-analysis.