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Psychological Perspectives on Intentional Forgetting: An Overview of Concepts and Literature

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Abstract

Concepts and mechanisms of forgetting are a subject of great interest in today’s digital world. Especially for the development of socio-digital systems utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), the question arises how to deal with growing amounts of information. Psychological models of forgetting offer numerous theoretical perspectives that can be transferred to AI research and practice. This article presents a short terminological overview and systematic of psychological concepts of forgetting from an individual, group, and organizational level. These views at the micro-, meso-, and macro-level may stimulate interdisciplinary research and offer models of intentional forgetting for single and multi-agent AI systems.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) with Grant number EL 269/9-1, KL2207/5-1, and KL2207/6-1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business Psychology, Trier University, Trier, Germany

    Thomas Ellwart

  2. Industrial, Organizational and Business Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Annette Kluge

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Correspondence to Thomas Ellwart.

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Ellwart, T., Kluge, A. Psychological Perspectives on Intentional Forgetting: An Overview of Concepts and Literature. Künstl Intell 33, 79–84 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13218-018-00571-0

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