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Development of Intentional Forgetting in Children

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Abstract

The experience of deliberately trying to forget information, such as an old phone number when we move, is a common one in everyday life. Although the phenomenon has been extensively studied in adults, only a handful of studies have looked at intentional forgetting in children. This early work suggests that children begin to gain control over their forgetting in the elementary school years. However, partly because of the relatively complicated tasks used in these studies, many questions remain unanswered. How early in the school years, for example, can children make use of a forget instruction? By what mechanisms do children intentionally forget?

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Lehman, E.B., Bovasso, M. (1993). Development of Intentional Forgetting in Children. In: Howe, M.L., Pasnak, R. (eds) Emerging Themes in Cognitive Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9220-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9220-0_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-9222-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-9220-0

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