Long-term representational costs of overloading working memory

Abstract

Can learning too much information at once impair long-term retention of its meaning? Emerging evidence suggests that encoding too many items into working memory (WM) limits subsequent long-term memory (LTM) retrieval of their details and gist. These findings highlight a boundary condition for theories positing relatively automatic gist encoding. But how expansive is this boundary? Experiment 1 shows that it extends to older adults, despite their generally enhanced reliance on gist memory. In two older adult samples (n = 40 each), LTM gist retrieval was reduced for objects encoded in sets exceeding WM capacity. Experiment 2 shows that this boundary holds even when retaining items in LTM is essential. Under intentional long-term learning, young (n = 81) and older (n = 40) adults’ LTM gist retrieval remained affected by overloading WM at encoding. Results invite leading memory theories to reconsider the universality of relatively automatic gist encoding.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Greene, N.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6758-6761 Guitard, D. Forsberg, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6635-6160 Cowan, N. Naveh-Benjamin, M.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Working memory; Long-term memory; Gist; Aging
Dates:	Submitted: 3 April 2025 Accepted: 31 July 2025 Published (online): 19 February 2026 Published: February 2026
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield)
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2026 14:09
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2026 14:09
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.3758/s13423-025-02826-y
Related URLs:	Dataset
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:238312