Transformations on sets in short-term memory: Temporal and spatial factors influencing deletion.

An individual's ability to perform a deletion operation on sets in short-term memory was explored in a reaction time (RT) experiment. Special attention was given to the importance, for deletion, of temporal and spatial variables. Ss did perform a deletion operation. The speed of correct recognition was influenced by both the delay between the deletion (D) set and a test item and the serial order correspondence between identical items in the to-be-remembered or positive (P) set and the D set.