  We study the influence of various excitations on the anomalous field effect
observed in insulating indium-oxide films. In conductance G versus gate-voltage
Vg measurements one observes a characteristic cusp around the Vg at which the
system has equilibrated. In the absence of any disturbance this cusp may
persist for a long time after a new gate voltage was imposed on the sample and
hence reflects a memory of the previous equilibrium state. This memory is
believed to be related to the correlations between electrons. Here we show that
exciting the conduction electrons by exposing the sample to IR light degrades
this memory. We argue that any excitation that randomizes the system destroys
the correlations and therefore impairs the memory.
