摘要
As more and more benefits of forgetting have been found in recent studies,whether forgetting could promote individuals ability of creative problem solving remains a controversial debate.This article discusses the effect of two types of forgetting,the retrieval-induced forgetting(RIF)and the forgetting during incubation,in benefiting creative problem solving by introducing and analysing the relevant experiments.The results reveal that retrieval-induced forgetting only works when previous mental fixations occurred and the promotion varies when solving different types of problems.The level of RIF is irrelevant to the performance in solving closed-ended creative problems and high level of RIF even impairs the creativity when solving open-ended problems.And forgetting during incubation cannot explain the incubation effect.The spreading activation of relevant information or the unconscious work is more likely to be the possible reasons.In conclusion,the current article brings about the discussions about the work conditions and effects of forgetting in creative problem solving.
