Forgetting in working memory

Two main reasons account for forgetting in working memory, i.e., the temporal decay of memory traces and the interferences from distracting information. This new study showed that distracting information have a detrimental effect on memory traces only if these traces are weak, whereas temporal decays always affect memory traces. These findings clarify the long standing debate about forgetting in human beings.

Barrouillet, P., Plancher, G., Guida, A., & Camos, V. (2013) Forgetting at short term: When do event-based interference and temporal factors have an effect? Acta Psychologica, 142,155-167.

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