Paul Connerton's inquiry in Memory Studies into the seven types of forgetting highlights forgetting as an active rather than passive process in both individual and larger cultural memory. The present article suggests that `forgetting' may be re-interpreted as a problem of relative accessibility from a larger store of available memory. Seen in this light, emotion, meaning and goal relevance are likely to affect a given memory's personal or cultural accessibility. Each of the seven types of forgetting is re-evaluated with these three critical factors' role in memory accessibility given greater attention and prominence.
Connerton, P. (2008) `Seven Types of Forgetting', Memory Studies1(1): 59-78.
2.
Conway, M.A. and Pleydell-Pearce, C.W. (2000) `The Construction of Autobiographical Memories in the Self Memory System', Psychological Review107: 261-88.
3.
Conway, M.A., Singer, J.A. and Tagini, A. (2004) `The Self and Autobiographical Memory: Correspondence and Coherence', Social Cognition22: 495-537.
4.
Margalit, A. (2002) The Ethics of Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
McAdams, D.P. (2001) `The Psychology of Life Stories', Review of General Psychology5: 100-22.
6.
Moffitt, K.H. and Singer, J.A. (1994) `Continuity in the Life Story: Self-Defining Memories, Affective Responses, and Approach/Avoidance Strivings', Journal of Personality62: 21-43.
7.
Sarbin, T.R. (1986) `The Narrative as a Root Metaphor for Psychology' , in T.R. Sarbin (ed.) Narrative Psychology: The Storied Nature of Human Conduct, pp. 3-21. New York : Praeger.
8.
Tomkins, S.S. (1971) `A Theory of Memory', in J.S. Antrobus (ed.) Cognition and Affect, pp. 59-130. Boston, MA: Little Brown.
9.
Tulving, E. and Pearlstone, Z. (1966) `Availability versus Accessibility of Information in Memory for Words', Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior5: 381-91.
