Interactions of working and long-term memory: Evidence from Brown-Peterson and proactive interference effects
Lea M. Bartsch, Eda Mizrak, Klaus Oberauer · 2026
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Description
Lea M. Bartsch, Eda Mizrak and Klaus Oberauer investigate, in a 2026 paper, how working memory and long-term memory cooperate during immediate recall. The two systems overlap in practice, and the authors probed their interaction using interference from earlier material and a distracting task during the waiting interval.
In one experiment, volunteers learned word-object pairs; a second used object-colour pairs with a colour reproduction test. Interference hurt performance mainly at larger set sizes, suggesting long-term memory carries more of the load there, while the distracting task hurt most at small set sizes, where working memory dominates. When interference blocked long-term memory, people leaned harder on working memory, which the distraction then disrupted. The authors favour a flexible partnership between the systems.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Lea M. Bartsch, Eda Mizrak, Klaus Oberauer |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |