During any instant, our sensory systems are bombarded with information. Accordingly, a primary task of the sensory-perceptual-cognitive system is to acquire and maintain information needed for the task at hand, while ignoring or discarding information that’s not. We report experiments in which pictures seen at varying durations and contrasts were followed by unexpected tests wherein original contrast and duration values were estimated. These tests were designed to determine whether seemingly irrelevant information about a picture’s contrast and duration is stored and maintained in memory. We tested the hypothesis that it’s not, but instead that eventual duration and contrast estimates are based on a single “Strength” value which also determines recognition performance. We confirmed this hypothesis for two experiments in which Observers expected a memory test, but rejected it in three other experiments in which Observers did not expect a recognition test.