Skip to main content
Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Forget For Now, but Remember Later: Can People Selectively Remove Information From Working Memory While Keeping it in Long-Term Memory? Cover

Forget For Now, but Remember Later: Can People Selectively Remove Information From Working Memory While Keeping it in Long-Term Memory?

Open Access
|Apr 2026

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Procedure and General Trial Structure.

Table 1

Bayes Factors for Experimental Effects in Experiments 1 and 2.

DEPENDENT VARIABLEMEMORY INSTRUCTIONSCIINTERACTION
Exp. 1: Item Memory5.60.100.14
Exp. 1: Binding Memory2820.210.11
Exp. 2: Item Memory1.7 × 1080.120.96
Exp. 2: Binding Memory390.090.09
Figure 2

Item Memory and Binding Memory in the Long-Term Memory Tests of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2.

Note. Error bars represent the within subject 95% confidence intervals. Remember = words cued to be remembered in the WM test; Forget = words cued to be forgotten in the WM test.

Figure 3

Accuracy in the WM Test of Experiment 3.

Table 2

Contrasts for Analysis of Experiments 3 and 4.

CONTRASTSMALL SET SIZELARGE SET SIZEREMOVAL (TBR)REMOVAL (TBF)
Removal-Small10–10
Removal-Large01–10
Directed Forgetting001–1
Table 3

Bayes Factors for Working Memory and Long-Term Memory Performance in Experiment 3.

EFFECTWORKING MEMORYLONG-TERM MEMORY
ITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORYITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORY
Removal-Small1.8·10132.3·10450.070.77
Removal-Large9.54.3·1070.080.48
Directed Forgetting3.1·10311.1·10110.7710.4
Group0.360.260.080.20
Removal-Small × Group0.380.230.200.15
Removal-Large × Group220.230.070.11
Directed Forgetting × Group0.290.60.080.46
Figure 4

Accuracy in the Long-Term-Memory Test of Experiment 3.

Table 4

Bayes Factors for Working Memory and Long-Term Memory Performance in Experiment 4.

EFFECTWORKING MEMORYLONG-TERM MEMORY
ITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORYITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORY
Removal-Small0.380.666.90.77
Directed Forgetting3.1·10683.5
Group0.530.170.530.17
Removal-Small × Group0.352.210.250.18
Directed Forgetting × Group0.110.15
Figure 5

Accuracy in the Working-Memory Test of Experiment 4.

Figure 6

Accuracy in the Long-Term-Memory Test of Experiment 4.

Table 5

Bayes Factors for Working Memory and Long-Term Memory Performance in Experiment 5.

EFFECTWORKING MEMORYLONG-TERM MEMORY
ITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORYITEM MEMORYBINDING MEMORY
Removal-Small26050.250.180.13
Directed Forgetting129926.1
Group0.570.120.110.13
Removal-Small × Group0.550.170.170.13
Directed Forgetting × Group0.110.12
Figure 7

Accuracy in the Working-Memory Test of Experiment 5.

Figure 8

Accuracy in the Long-Term-Memory Test of Experiment 5.

Figure 9

Accuracy in the Working-Memory Test of Experiment 6.

Figure 10

Accuracy in the Long-Term-Memory Test of Experiment 6.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.497 | Journal eISSN: 2514-4820
Language: English
Submitted on: Sep 19, 2025
Accepted on: Mar 25, 2026
Published on: Apr 7, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Hannah Dames, Vencislav Popov, Klaus Oberauer, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.