Question: Do we have a maximum brain capacity, where once you get to a certain point, in order to receive new information old information has to be deleted?

Rebecca Dewey answered on 15 Jun 2015:

Not in a literal sense. Some people can store information of a certain type more easily than other people and other types. For example, one man could memorise thousands of books, but not remember names. There are techniques for teaching your brain to memorise lists or faces or dates. In a real world situation, we carry on learning new things and remembering the old ones as long as they are still relevant. Old information is likely to be deleted if it is not used or reminded. We often get to a point when we are so tired that we can’t take in any new information until we have had a rest. Our short term or working memory can get full and can’t hold anything new until certain relevant things have been transferred to long-term memory or forgotten. At a certain age, due to general ageing of the brain, and not doing enough mental exercises, the memory of older people can start to decline also.