Capacity not required: A long-term memory model that exhibits key signatures of working memory

Because the study of working memory and long-term memory diverged decades ago, views about the diagnostic nature of certain measures within each literature might not be valid. For example, in the study of working memory, it is viewed as critical to show a capacity limit in storage as a way of demonstrating that one is measuring the limited-capacity working memory store and not the unlimited capacity long-term memory store. Although this is a strong logical structure, these hallmarks of working memory might already fall out of existing models of human long-term memory. Here, we show that several of the set size effects often used to validate the assumption that one is studying working memory are also observed as a natural result of the dynamics of contextual models of long-term memory storage and retrieval. Integrating contextual dynamics into a model of visual working memory provides new insight into the nature of interference in short-term visual memory tasks and allows the model to capture the temporal structure of visual experience as it unfolds in time. We discuss how the situation motivates a re-examination of unified models of human memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).