Not all information in visual working memory is forgotten equally

Katherine C. Moen, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States. Electronic address: kmoen1@lsu.edu.
Juan D. Guevara Pinto, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States. Electronic address: jgueva3@lsu.edu.
Megan H. Papesh, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States. Electronic address: mpapesh@lsu.edu.
Melissa R. Beck, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States. Electronic address: mbeck@lsu.edu.

Abstract

To improve maintenance of task-relevant information in visual working memory (VWM), previously encoded, but no longer relevant, information can be suppressed or forgotten. However, it is unclear whether a cue directing attention to a subset of stimuli leads to complete forgetting for non-cued stimuli. The current study utilized a novel method of testing to-be forgotten information to determine if the effectiveness of forgetting differs depending on the type of encoded stimuli. Participants performed a directed forgetting change detection task, and importantly, the changed stimulus could be a novel stimulus or a to-be-forgotten stimulus. Stimulus type (colors, objects, or shapes) was manipulated across two experiments. Results suggest that a cue benefits memory for to-be-remembered information, but performance is not equivalent to never encoding to-be-forgotten information. Furthermore, the type of encoded information impacts the extent of forgetting.