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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
Published on: July 16, 2015
Task Termination Triggers Spontaneous Removal of Information From Visual Working Memory
Hiroyuki Tsubomi1, Keisuke Fukuda2,3, Atsushi Kikumoto4
1School of Humanities, University of Toyama.
Abstract:
Working memory (WM) is a goal-directed memory system that actively maintains a limited amount of task-relevant information to serve the current goal. By this definition, WM maintenance should be terminated after the goal is accomplished, spontaneously removing no-longer-relevant information from WM. Past studies have failed to provide direct evidence of spontaneous removal of WM content by allowing participants to engage in a strategic reallocation of WM resources to competing information within WM. By contrast, we provide direct neural and behavioral evidence that visual WM content can be largely removed less than 1 s after it becomes obsolete, in the absence of a strategic allocation of resources (total N = 442 adults). These results demonstrate that visual WM is intrinsically a goal-directed system, and spontaneous removal provides a means for capacity-limited WM to keep up with ever-changing demands in a dynamic environment.
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