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  3. Long-term Representational Costs Of Overloading Working Memory.
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  3. Long-term Representational Costs Of Overloading Working Memory.

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Long-term representational costs of overloading working memory.

Nathaniel R Greene1, Dominic Guitard2, Alicia Forsberg3

  • 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Villanova University, 148 Tolentine Hall, 800 E. Lancaster Ave, Villanova, PA, 19085, USA. nathaniel.greene@villanova.edu.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|February 19, 2026

View abstract on PubMed

Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Learning too much information can hinder long-term memory recall. Overloading working memory (WM) impairs retrieval of details and gist, even for older adults and during intentional learning, challenging theories of automatic gist encoding.

Keywords:
AgingGistLong-term memoryWorking memory

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Memory

Background:

  • Emerging evidence suggests that working memory (WM) capacity limitations can impact long-term memory (LTM) encoding.
  • Theories of memory often assume relatively automatic gist encoding, but this may have boundaries.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether overloading working memory (WM) during encoding impairs long-term memory (LTM) retrieval of gist and details.
  • To determine if this effect extends to older adults and persists under intentional learning conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Tested LTM gist retrieval in two older adult samples (n=40 each) with varying WM load during encoding.
  • Experiment 2: Assessed LTM gist retrieval in young (n=81) and older (n=40) adults under intentional learning with overloaded WM at encoding.

Main Results:

  • LTM gist retrieval was reduced in older adults when objects were encoded in sets exceeding WM capacity.
  • Both young and older adults showed impaired LTM gist retrieval when WM was overloaded during intentional long-term learning.

Conclusions:

  • Overloading working memory (WM) at encoding significantly impairs long-term memory (LTM) gist retrieval, even for older adults and under intentional learning.
  • These findings challenge the universality of automatic gist encoding and suggest a boundary condition for memory theories.