The Relation Between Attention and Memory

Abstract

The relation between attention and memory has long been deemed important for understanding cognition, and it was heavily researched even in the first experimental psychology laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt and his colleagues. Since then, the importance of the relation between attention and memory has been explored in myriad subdisciplines of psychology, and we incorporate a wide range of these diverse fields. Here, we examine some of the practical consequences of this relation and summarize work with various methodologies relating attention to memory in the fields of working memory, long-term memory, individual differences, life-span development, typical brain function, and neuropsychological conditions. We point out strengths and unanswered questions for our own embedded processes view of information processing, which is used to organize a large body of evidence. Last, we briefly consider the relation of the evidence to a range of other theoretical views before drawing conclusions about the state of the field.

Keywords: attention and memory; development; long-term memory; neuroscience; selective attention; working memory.

Figure 1.

Schematic representation of attention and LTM in an embedded-processes view. Inputs from the environment pass into an activated subset of long-term memory (aLTM), represented by the large, irregular shape. Some subset of this information passes into the focus of attention (FoA), which is severely limited in capacity. Solid arrows from the environment represent information entering the FoA, represented as two shapes. Knowledge from stored LTM can be used to create structures (e.g., new chunks) from stimuli currently in the FoA, enabling the information to be offloaded out of the FoA into aLTM (cloud with conjoined shapes) and stored as a new LTM. Primes presented either without conscious, explicit awareness (dashed arrow input from the environment) or with awareness can activate stored concepts from LTM, which in turn can more easily pass related content to the FoA.

Figure 2.

Capacity-estimate model for WM in a dual task. The central portion stays roughly constant at about one item and the peripheral portions increase markedly during childhood (Cowan et al., 2018) and decrease again in older adults (Greene et al., 2020).

Figure 3.

A simplified illustration of a theoretical neural framework consistent with the embedded-process model approach to attention and memory. This figure incorporates elements of former proposals (e.g., Chai et al., 2018; Cowan, 1995, 2019; Ekman et al., 2016; Postle & Oberauer, 2022). Part A, a schematic illustration of how attention relates to memory hierarchically, with a bottom-up and a top-down transfer of information along the same routes. Part B, a brain map of this information flow. Solid, bidirectional arrows depict the major neural routes of information transfer. DLPFC=dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, involved executive decisions; ACC= anterior cingulate cortex, involved in attention control; IPS=intraparietal sulcus, serving as a hub of activity or FoA; BG=basal ganglia, a subcortical region involved in channeling attention; HC=hippocampus, a key structure among subcortical regions involved in consolidating new explicit memories; aLTM=activated LTM. The brain outline was constructed via free stock images (http://www.clker.com).