This study examines the rapid forgetting process entailed by simultaneous interpreting when strings of unrelated or loosely contextualized items (e.g. names, numbers, etc.) appear in the source text. Lists of such items were used as a means to examine the extent of information loss, arguably attributable to working memory limits and the impossibility of rehearsing during simultaneous interpreting. The experimental design centered on professionals’ capacity to retain long left-branching noun phrases while interpreting into a head-initial language as well as on the role of the presentation rate.