Temporarily Unavailable: Memory Inhibition in Cognitive and Computer Science
This is an incremental review that connects cognitive psychology concepts to computer science applications, potentially aiding researchers in both fields.
The paper reviews psychological research on memory inhibition and links it to computer science efforts to incorporate inhibitory principles for optimizing information retrieval in Personal Information Management, identifying areas for future development such as context inhibition.
Inhibition is one of the core concepts in Cognitive Psychology. The idea of inhibitory mechanisms actively weakening representations in the human mind has inspired a great number of studies in various research domains. In contrast, Computer Science only recently has begun to consider inhibition as a second basic processing quality beside activation. Here, we review psychological research on inhibition in memory and link the gained insights with the current efforts in Computer Science of incorporating inhibitory principles for optimizing information retrieval in Personal Information Management. Four common aspects guide this review in both domains: 1. The purpose of inhibition to increase processing efficiency. 2. Its relation to activation. 3. Its links to contexts. 4. Its temporariness. In summary, the concept of inhibition has been used by Computer Science for enhancing software in various ways already. Yet, we also identify areas for promising future developments of inhibitory mechanisms, particularly context inhibition.