Visual working memory depends on attentional filtering.
Working memory holds information actively being used in cognitive performance. Two important aspects of working memory are how many items it can hold, and how efficiently it can be used. Recently, Vogel and colleagues used event-related brain potentials to show that these two things are related. People who could remember more objects from a spatial array also more efficiently excluded irrelevant objects. The results raise important questions about what aspect of working memory is most fundamental.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, 18 McAlester Hall, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA. CowanN@missouri.edu
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D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*