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The removal of information from working memory
Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock1, Yoav Kessler2, Klaus Oberauer3
1Department of Psychology and Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
|May 10, 2018
Summary
Information no longer needed is selectively removed from working memory. This removal process limits cognitive load, improving focus on current goals and aiding new information encoding.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory (WM) must manage goal-relevant information efficiently.
- Outdated information can impede cognitive performance by increasing WM load.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review evidence for a selective removal process of outdated information from working memory.
- To explore the mechanisms, characteristics, and implications of this removal process.
Main Methods:
- Review of behavioral and neural evidence.
- Analysis of studies investigating working memory content manipulation.
Main Results:
- Evidence supports a distinct removal process, separate from decay or interference.
- Removal alters representations, reducing access to irrelevant content.
- Two forms of removal proposed: temporary/reversible and permanent/unbinding.
Conclusions:
- Selective removal is crucial for optimizing working memory function.
- This process facilitates maintenance of goal-relevant information and new encoding.
- Further research is needed to fully characterize removal mechanisms and limitations.
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