Study indicates how we maintain visual details in short-term memory
Working memory (also known as short term memory) is our ability to keep a small amount of information active in our mind. This is useful for information we need to know on-the-fly, such as a phone number or the few items we need to pick up from the grocery store. We hang on to the information for a brief period of time, just long enough to make a phone call or get through the checkout line, and then we forget it forever. We receive much of our information through our visual system, but it was unknown how much of this visual information is actively involved in short term memory. Psychologists John T. Serences from the University of California, San Diego, along with Edward F. Ester, Edward K. Vogel and Edward Awh from the University of Oregon wanted to examine which neural systems enable the maintenance of these visual details in short term memory...