Competition during working memory enhances long-term memory

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Ian Ballard^1,2 (iancballard@gmail.com), Lana Gaspariani³, Maytus Piriyajitakonkij⁴, Ioannis Pappas⁵, Anastasia Kiyonaga^3,6; ¹Psychology Department, University of California, Riverside, ²Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, Riverside, ³Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, ⁴Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, England, ⁵Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, ⁶Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California San Diego

Working memory (WM) continually interacts with the external environment, yet how such interactions shape short- and long-term memory remains unclear. A key factor modulating this influence is the perceptual similarity between visual inputs and WM content. Inputs that resemble what we hold in mind could facilitate or interfere with WM content, or simultaneously engage both processes. To adjudicate between these possibilities, we developed a WM task using naturalistic stimuli in which a task- irrelevant distractor appeared during WM maintenance. We systematically varied the similarity of this visual input to both task-relevant and -irrelevant WM items. To assess how competition between WM and visual inputs shapes long-term memory (LTM), we later tested memory for stimuli encountered in the WM task. Across two studies, we found that moderate similarity between visual inputs and behaviorally relevant WM content yielded the best WM performance, whereas dissimilar or highly similar inputs impaired it. These results suggest that perceptually similar inputs can support WM representations up to a point, beyond which interference dominates. Strikingly, stronger interference during WM predicted better long-term memory, indicating that competition between internal and external representations promotes durable encoding. Together, these findings reveal how overlap between thought and perception shapes both momentary cognition and lasting memory.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory