Minneskontroll

Minneskontroll is a term used in cognitive psychology to describe the set of cognitive processes that regulate the encoding, storage and retrieval of memories. It covers both deliberate strategies to enhance retention and retrieval, and the ability to suppress or ignore unwanted memories. In this sense, minneskontroll is a component of executive control over memory.

Neuroscientific research links minneskontroll to prefrontal networks that guide attention, inhibition and strategy use, with interactions between the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Mechanisms include attentional selection during encoding, organizational strategies during learning, retrieval orientation, and inhibitory control that can prevent access to competing memories or intrusive material.

Experimental paradigms such as directed forgetting and the Think/No-Think task demonstrate that people can actively influence which memories are retrieved. Retrieval-induced forgetting shows that retrieving some items can impair the recall of related items. Sleep, aging, and stress modulate the efficiency of minneskontroll.

Clinical and educational relevance is noted in contexts such as PTSD, where intrusive memories reflect dysfunction in retrieval suppression, and in aging, where declines in executive control affect memory performance. Techniques to strengthen minneskontroll include cognitive training and strategies that reduce interference during learning.

Terminologically, minneskontroll is the Norwegian and Danish term for memory control. In English-language literature related terms include memory control, retrieval suppression, directed forgetting and inhibitory control of memory.