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Review
. 2025 Jan;15(1):e70220.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.70220.

The Effect of Digital Era on Human Visual Working Memory

Dandan Tang  1 , Jiangtao Chen  2   3 , Ping Xu  4
Affiliations
Review

The Effect of Digital Era on Human Visual Working Memory

Dandan Tang et al. Brain Behav. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Background: The digital age has had a profound impact on our lives and cognitive abilities, such as working memory. Typically, visual working memory (VWM) is an important aspect of our working memory. As a crucial cognitive function for individuals, VWM has been extensively studied in the context of the digital age and may be affected by the digital age.

Objective: This review aims to provide a summary of the impact of the digital age on VWM and cover various aspects and novel methods for investigating its effects on our VWM.

Methods: Qualitative review of the VWM in the context of the digital age.

Results: This paper reviews the research on VWM in the context of the digital era, expounds the influence of both the digital content usage and the active video games on the VWM, introduces the application of the virtual technology in the research of VWM, and puts forward the future research direction of VWM in the context of the digital era.

Conclusion: By synthesizing the existing research, this review sheds light on the complex relationship between the digital age and VWM, as well as identifies potential avenues for future research on VWM.

Keywords: active video games; digit age; digital content; virtual reality; visual working memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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