Eye movements reveal the cognitive dynamics supporting successful memory suppression

Prior work has shown that stopping memory retrieval can lead to lasting forgetting (suppression-induced forgetting; SIF); however, the factors that lead to successful SIF are not fully understood. Here, we used a novel eye tracking paradigm to examine how participants interact with memory cues to support their retrieval goals. In a preregistered sample (N=34), we show that instructions to retrieve were associated with gaze reinstatement (eye gaze towards the location where the target object was studied), while instructions to suppress were associated with gaze repulsion (eye gaze away from the studied location). We also show that lasting SIF is associated with an initial period of gaze reinstatement during the suppression attempt. These results provide novel evidence for how humans intentionally forget, revealing both the top-down strategies that people employ to suppress retrieval and also the retrieval dynamics that lead to lasting forgetting.