Repeatedly retrieving information from memory can induce forgetting of related, un-retrieved information below baseline, an effect termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; Anderson, Bjork & Bjork, 1994). The inhibitory account of RIF (e.g., Anderson, 2003) has received extensive support in the literature, especially through studies designed to empirically test inhibitory-based principles of RIF in adults. These principles include cue independence (RIF persists in the absence of the cue used during practice), interference/competition dependence (inhibition serves to resolve interference/competition between the cue and associated items during practice), strength independence (RIF is not strictly due to a target strengthening and competitor forgetting trade-off), retrieval-specificity (retrieval attempts are required to create the interference/ competition responsible for triggering inhibition), and output interference independence (RIF persists when output interference is controlled). However, competition-based explanations do not require an inhibitory component and can also account for many adult RIF findings. Very little RIF research has examined young children’s memory, whose immature memory systems might not be capable of demonstrating an inhibitory-driven effect. This dissertation filled this gap in the literature by thoroughly evaluating the inhibitory account of RIF in kindergartners (Ks). Two groups of Ks completed two RIF tasks that tested cue independence, competition/interference dependence, and strength independence in the first experiment, and retrieval-specificity, output interference independence, and strength-independence again in the second experiment. When a novel cue was used to test final memory (Experiment 1), and when a cue-free recognition test was used that controlled for output interference (Experiment 2), no RIF was found. These results, along with correlational evidence of strength dependence, favour a competition-based account of Ks’ RIF. Implications for inhibition theory and the potential development of RIF are discussed.

In 1921, the Canadian government confiscated over 400 pieces of Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch regalia and placed it in three large museums. In 1967 the Kwakwaka'wakw initiated a long process of repatriation resulting in the majority of the collection returning to two Kwakwaka’wakw cultural centres over the last four decades. Through the theoretical framework of object biography and using the museum register as a tool to reconstruct the lives of the potlatch regalia, this thesis explores the multiple paths, diversions and oscillations between objecthood and subjecthood that the collection has undergone. This thesis constructs an exhibition history for the regalia, examines processes of institutional forgetting, and adds multiple layers of meaning to the collection's biography by attending to the post-repatriation life of the objects. By revisiting this pivotal Canadian case, diversions are emphasized as important moments in the creation of subjecthood and objecthood for museum objects.

In 1921, the Canadian government confiscated over 400 pieces of Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch regalia and placed it in three large museums. In 1967 the Kwakwaka'wakw initiated a long process of repatriation resulting in the majority of the collection returning to two Kwakwaka’wakw cultural centres over the last four decades. Through the theoretical framework of object biography and using the museum register as a tool to reconstruct the lives of the potlatch regalia, this thesis explores the multiple paths, diversions and oscillations between objecthood and subjecthood that the collection has undergone. This thesis constructs an exhibition history for the regalia, examines processes of institutional forgetting, and adds multiple layers of meaning to the collection's biography by attending to the post-repatriation life of the objects. By revisiting this pivotal Canadian case, diversions are emphasized as important moments in the creation of subjecthood and objecthood for museum objects.

Walter Benjamin, in Thesis IX of his “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” wrote of the angel of history looking back at the past from the now-time of the present moment, at the historical wreckage, a single catastrophe as it were, piling in front of its feet, as it gets pulled forward facing back into the temporality of the future and the space of modernity’s violent excesses, heralded by the promise of apparent progress. As the title to my dissertation suggests, my study begins, following the angel’s look, with these three words, seeing what remains, and as such it is structured around the very nature of this arresting “look back” and that which is being regarded, the ruins, or the remains and remainders that exist after, and in the aftermath of, traumatic loss. Working with and across a variety of mediums, I conduct a series of exegetical studies of recent “texts” – literary, photographic, and cinematic – within which, I argue, this look back figures as central to the concern of how we might understand the simultaneous existence of the forces of remembrance and forgetting, and of mourning and melancholia in memory-work. The various “texts” within which I explore this look back are Anne Michaels’s novel Fugitive Pieces, the photographic series titled Library of Dust by David Maisel, the movies Hiroshima, mon amour by Marguerite Duras and Alain Resnais and Amour by Michael Haneke. I situate my exploration of the enigmatic nature of the look back in these different textual scenes alongside Sigmund Freud’s critical work on transference and transference love and Kaja Silverman’s rigorous expansion of the psychoanalytic objective of the “cure by love.” Here, it is my intention, as such, to work toward and expand on my thesis that this look, of the angel (or the materialist historian or the artist as witness), is a look of redemptive love, both against erasure and against the possibility of invisibility, “to awaken the dead” as it were, so as to address the loss inscribed in historical experiences with catastrophic temporality and to thereby redeem the ethical from within the scene of trauma.

Henri IV met fin aux guerres civiles de religion en 1598 en décrétant la mémoire des troubles « éteinte et assoupie, comme de chose non advenue ». Comment se positionne le théâtre français par rapport à cette politique d’oubli, quel espace mémoriel offre-t-il ? Nous considérons la tragédie qui s’écrit entre 1629, fin officielle des guerres civiles et date de la dernière tragédie d’actualité, et 1653, fin de la Fronde et d’une nouvelle menace de division intérieure. La tragédie semble se détourner d’une actualité trop déchirante, en ce sens elle oublie, mais elle se trouve pourtant travaillée par cet oublié. En partant du plus visible : la mise en scène des princes cléments, nous montrons que cette forme d’oubli officiel et volontaire est très représentée sur la scène tragique. Mais l’oublié est aussi ce qui travaille les tragédies dans la représentation qu’elles offrent du conflit familial qui fournit bon nombre des sujets tragiques du temps. La tragédie fait donc affleurer le présent du passé, la mémoire de la division, par le détour allégorique. À un théâtre mélancolique où le passé pèse sur le présent de tout son poids s’oppose un théâtre de relance historique dans lequel peut s’ouvrir un avenir nouveau. Enfin, l’oubli apparaît dans ces années de théorisation dramatique comme un idéal pour le spectateur absorbé dans le spectacle, et comme une menace quand il conduit à l’oubli de soi chez certains comédiens ou spectateurs naïfs. L’oubli, dans son équivocité fondamentale, permet donc d’articuler théorie politique, dramatique et images scéniques, dans un premier dix-septième siècle où l’on ne cesse de penser la violence qui menace le lien et la communauté au risque de la division. / Henry the 4th ends the religious civil wars in 1598 by ordaining that the remembrance of troubles is « extinguished and abated, like something that did not occur ». How does French drama stand in relation with this politics of oblivion ? What kind of memorial space does it open ? We consider tragedies written between 1629, official end of the troubles and date of publication of the last usual times tragedy, and 1653, end of a new internal division threat embodied by the Fronde. In appearance, tragedy seems to forget a harrowing recent past by turning away from it, but it is simultaneously deeply influenced by what has been forgotten. By starting with what is most visible, the staging of merciful princes, we demonstrate that this official and voluntary oblivion is very much represented on the tragic stage. But forgetfulness is also influencing tragedies in their displaying of family feuds, a frequent tragic topic of these times. Tragedy thus makes surface the present of the past, the memory of division, through allegoric detours. A double-face drama emerges : one of melancholy in which past weighs on present, one of historical reset with an ouverture for renascent prospects. Last, in these years of dramatic theorization, forgetfulness appears to be, for a spectator absorbed by the play, an ideal, as well as it can drag the most naive of them and some comedians into forgetting about their selves in denial of reality and confusion with fiction. The fundamental ambiguity of forgetfulness enables to articulate political theory, drama and staging, in a 17th century where violence is thought to threaten the community with division.

Esta pesquisa trata do esquecimento do passado por refugiados africanos. As entrevistas foram recolhidas na Casa do Migrante, albergue que acolhe migrantes internos, imigrantes e refugiados recém-chegados em São Paulo. Foram entrevistados dois africanos: um angolano e outro congolês. Nosso objetivo de estudar o esquecimento emergiu nas entrevistas individuais e compartilhada entre estes refugiados, pois eles não queriam lembrar as cenas de guerra em África. Compreendemos o esquecimento, levantando a hipótese freudiana de que os refugiados querem esquecer o passado pois, ao tentarem dominar o golpe excessivo, repetem compulsivamente o trauma e a hipótese benjaminiana de que a dificuldade dos africanos em comunicar a experiência de guerra se deve ao declínio da narrativa e a experiência do choque após o avanço das forças produtivas. Porém, buscamos investigar se é possível elaborar o passado. Compreendemos as levas de refugiados ao redor do mundo como resultado da crise do capitalismo global, como nos mostrou Robert Kurz. Não se trata de povos obrigados a sair de sua pátria desde a antiga história religiosa da humanidade, tão pouco de vítimas de perseguição ou vítimas de violação dos direitos humanos, como concebe a Cáritas Arquidiocesana de São Paulo no atendimento aos refugiados. Analisamos as entrevistas a partir de três categorias de análise a fuga da guerra, a educação e o trabalho. Então, refletimos sobre o esquecimento dos refugiados africanos, partindo de um teor religioso para alcançar algumas considerações psicológicas. Mas o que resta aos psicanalistas diante de refugiados africanos? Concluímos o estudo, investigando a metodologia psicanalítica mais adequada para a pesquisa com africanos sobreviventes de guerra. E decidimos recolher seus sonhos traumáticos, segundo nossa hipótese de que eles pudessem sonhar à noite com aquilo que querem esquecer à luz do dia / This study is about the forgetting of the past by African refugees. The interviews were collected at Casa do Migrante hostel that offers shelter for migrants, immigrants and newcomers refugees in São Paulo. Two Africans were interviewed: an Angolan and a Congolese. Our aim of studying the forgetting emerged from the individual and shared interviews with these refugees, because they did not want to remember the scenes of war in Africa. We understand the forgetting, considering the freudian hypothesis that the refugees want to forget the past, as they compulsively repeat the trauma, when they try to dominate the excessive coup and considering the benjaminian hypothesis that the difficulty of Africans to communicate the war experience is due to the decline of narrative and the shock experience after the development of productive forces. Nevertheless, we try to investigate whether it is possible to work through the past. We understand the waves of refugees around the world as a result of the crisis of global capitalism, as Robert Kurz showed us. It is not about people obliged to leave home since the ancient religious history of mankind, or about victims of persecution or victims of human rights violation, as conceived by the Cáritas Arquidiocesana de São Paulo in the attendance of refugees. We analyze the interviews according to three categories of analysis the flight from war, education and work. So, we thought about the forgetting of African refugees, starting from a religious content to achieve some psychological considerations. But what does it remain for psychoanalysts in the presence of African refugees? We conclude the study, investigating the more suitable psychoanalytic methodology for the research with Africans war survivors. And we decide to collect their traumatic dreams, according to our hypothesis that they might dream at night with what they want to forget at day light

Age can affect memory performance. This statement is so often heard that it has become almost a truism. When research surrounding memory inhibition – the ability to ignore irrelevant material to aid in the retrieval of a target memory – is examined specifically, a more mixed picture of findings emerges. Whilst some previous work has found evidence of an age-related deficit, other research has rather found intact memory inhibition in older adults. Less often discussed, too, are the effects of individual differences on memory inhibition in addition to age, including differences in metacognitive strategy, working memory capacity, stress and mood. The present thesis set out primarily to investigate the effects of age on memory inhibition chiefly using cognitive experimental paradigms, and also to investigate potential individual differences in this ability which exist across the lifespan. The findings of the present thesis showed that age alone was not related to a deficit in memory inhibition, - young and older adults rather showed equivalent levels of inhibitory forgetting on two different paradigms, when methodological measures were put in place to control for alternative, interference-based explanations (Study 1). These findings also could not be explained by differences in metacognitive, covert-cuing strategies (Study 2). Instead, age-related inhibitory deficits were qualified by differences in working memory capacity (Study 3a & b). In combination, older age and low working memory capacity were related to impaired memory inhibition, whereas young age or high working memory capacity were not. Finally, natural variations in stress and mood over time were found to be related to significant differences in working memory capacity, but not memory inhibition (Study 4). This suggests that these important cognitive abilities may be capable of changing even over relatively short time periods, and thus they may also potentially be improved, - a proposal which is considered in the General Discussion.

abstract: In order to deploy autonomous multi-robot teams for humanitarian demining in Colombia, two key problems need to be addressed. First, a robotic controller with limited power that can completely cover a dynamic search area is needed. Second, the Colombian National Army (COLAR) needs to increase its science, technology and innovation (STI) capacity to help develop, build and maintain such robots. Using Thangavelautham's (2012, 2017) Artificial Neural Tissue (ANT) control algorithm, a robotic controller for an autonomous multi-robot team was developed. Trained by a simple genetic algorithm, ANT is an artificial neural network (ANN) controller with a sparse, coarse coding network architecture and adaptive activation functions. Starting from the exterior of open, basic geometric grid areas, computer simulations of an ANT multi-robot team with limited time steps, no central controller and limited a priori information, covered some areas completely in linear time, and other areas near completely in quasi-linear time, comparable to the theoretical cover time bounds of grid-based, ant pheromone, area coverage algorithms. To mitigate catastrophic forgetting, a new learning method for ANT, Lifelong Adaptive Neuronal Learning (LANL) was developed, where neural network weight parameters for a specific coverage task were frozen, and only the activation function and output behavior parameters were re-trained for a new coverage task. The performance of the LANL controllers were comparable to training all parameters ab initio, for a new ANT controller for the new coverage task. To increase COLAR's STI capacity, a proposal for a new STI officer corps, Project ÉLITE (Equipo de Líderes en Investigación y Tecnología del Ejército) was developed, where officers enroll in a research intensive, master of science program in applied mathematics or physics in Colombia, and conduct research in the US during their final year. ÉLITE is inspired by the Israel Defense Forces Talpiot program. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Mathematics for the Life and Social Sciences 2019

L’oubli est un mécanisme essentiel au fonctionnement de la mémoire. Ceci est vrai lorsque l’on considère la mémoire de l’individu, qui est l’objet privilégié de la neuropsychologie, mais cela est également le cas lorsque nous considérons les usages sociaux, culturels et historiques de la mémoire qui sont les objets d’études privilégiés de l’histoire et des sciences humaines. Dans ce travail, nous avons cherché à comprendre l’influence conjointe des capacités de contrôle inhibiteur et de l’encodage de représentations collectives sur la conservation des souvenirs épisodiques. Nous avons abordé la question de l’oubli volontaire à l’aide du paradigme "Think/No-Think" qui permet l’induction expérimentale d’intrusions mnésiques, de leur contrôle et de leur oubli. Nous avons tout d’abord montré, en électrocardiographie et en électroencéphalographie, que les capacités d’oubli volontaire influencent directement la manifestation physiologique des émotions qui peuvent leur être associées. Ce résultat a ensuite été complété par une étude, à l’aide d’analyses de classification multivariées, montrant que les dynamiques neurales qui encadrent la suppression effective des souvenirs, lorsqu’ils apparaissent involontairement à la conscience, sont comparables aux réflexes de réorientation attentionnelle qui peuvent intervenir lors d’interférences sensorielles ou perceptives. Enfin, nous abordons l’influence des schémas présents en mémoire collective sur l’encodage des souvenirs à travers une étude en imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle. / Forgetting is a central mechanism for memory functioning. This is noticeable regarding individual’s memory, which is the privileged topic of neuropsychology, but this is still the case when we consider the social, cultural and historical practices of memory which are the privileged topics of history and social sciences. In this work, we tried to understand the joint influence of inhibitory control capabilities and the encoding of collective representations over episodic memories conservation. We addressed the question of voluntary forgetting through the use of the"Think/No-Think" paradigm as a way to induce experimental memory intrusions and their control. First, we report with electrocardiography and electroencephalography that voluntary forgetting capabilities directly affects the physiological roots of associated emotions. This result was then complemented, through the use of multivariate decoding, by a study showing that the neural dynamics surrounding the effective suppression of memories, when they involuntarily intrude into consciousness, are comparable to the reorienting reflex occurring during sensory or perceptive interference. Finally, we assess the influence of collective memory schema on the encoding of memories in a magnetic resonance image study.

The aim of my thesis is to analyze testimony of narrators from the perspective of scientific psychoanalysis. The thesis will also focus on memory which is at the origin of human thoughts and potential fiction. The thesis is not given only deals strictly by lies but also forgetting which stands for adjusting or accidental embellishing the truth. The aim of my thesis is also determine the extent to memory. Thought is responsible for the inaccuracy of information and understanding the lie was said in full consciousness and with the clear intention fiction and conceals the true past.