Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Chunking and Rehearsal in Sensory Memory01:22

Chunking and Rehearsal in Sensory Memory

Improving short-term memory can be achieved through techniques like chunking and rehearsal. Chunking involves organizing information into larger, more manageable units. This technique is particularly useful for information that exceeds the typical memory span of between five and nine items. For instance, logging into an online account with a password like "ta89vq0179gz" involves grouping letters and numbers into three chunks—ta89, vq01, and 79gz. It makes large amounts of information more...
Working Memory01:24

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this information.
Impact of Schemas01:30

Impact of Schemas

Schemas are cognitive structures that provide a framework for interpreting and organizing social information. They help individuals navigate complex environments by offering expectations about people, events, and behaviors. Schemas influence attention, encoding, and retrieval processes, thereby shaping the entire trajectory of information processing in social contexts.Attention and Cognitive LoadDuring initial attention, schemas function as filters that prioritize schema-consistent information,...
Parallel Processing01:20

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...
Sensory Memory01:14

Sensory Memory

Sensory memory captures information from the environment in its original form for a very brief duration, just long enough to be exposed to visual, auditory, and other senses. This type of memory is detailed and rich but quickly lost unless certain strategies are employed to transfer it into short-term or long-term memory. Sensory information is continuously bombarding the human brain, yet only a small fraction is absorbed, as most of it does not significantly impact daily life. For instance,...
System of Memory01:23

System of Memory

Memory is categorized into three major systems: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). These systems differ in their capacity and the duration for which they can hold information. Sensory memory captures raw sensory input from the environment, holding it for just a few seconds or less. For example, on hearing a brief, loud sound, like a car horn honking, the sound seems to linger in the mind for a moment even after it stops. This is an instance of sensory memory...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Interactions between sensory-biased and supramodal working memory networks in the human cerebral cortex.

Communications biology·2026
Same author

Quantifying the impact of hair and skin characteristics on fNIRS signal quality for enhanced inclusivity.

Nature human behaviour·2025
Same author

Combined Auditory, Tactile, and Visual FMRI Reveals Sensory-Biased and Supramodal Working Memory Regions in the Human Frontal Cortex.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025
Same author

Combined Auditory, Tactile, and Visual fMRI Reveals Sensory-Biased and Supramodal Working Memory Regions in Human Frontal Cortex.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Connectome-based predictive modeling of brain pathology and cognition in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association·2025
Same author

Quantifying the Impact of Hair and Skin Characteristics on Signal Quality with Practical Recommendations for Improvement.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2024
Same journal

Analysis of human visual experience data.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Pyramid-based Bayesian modeling for high-resolution behavioral analysis.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Sensation without perception: The white whale effect and perceptual blindness in autonomous vehicles.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Gaze behavior during closed-captioned movie viewing adapts to absent audio through more frequent switching between text and scene.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

In pursuit of saccade awareness: Limited volitional control and minimal conscious access to catch-up saccades during smooth pursuit eye movements.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Dissociable effects of element-lifetime and stimulus-duration on local and global motion processing: An equivalent noise study.

Journal of vision·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 28, 2026

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
05:58

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

Shared filtering processes link attentional and visual short-term memory capacity limits.

Katherine C Bettencourt1, Samantha W Michalka, David C Somers

  • 1Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. kcb@wjh.harvard.edu

Journal of Vision
|October 4, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Visual attention and visual short-term memory (VSTM) may not share a common buffer. Capacity limits are linked when tasks share spatial filtering demands, not a general buffer.

More Related Videos

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
08:45

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 28, 2026

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
05:58

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
08:45

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual perception

Background:

  • Visual attention and visual short-term memory (VSTM) exhibit similar capacity limits (4 ± 1 objects).
  • This similarity suggests a shared visual processing buffer, but individual differences complicate this hypothesis.
  • Research also indicates potential distinctions between attention and VSTM buffers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if capacity limitations in attention and VSTM stem from a shared visual processing buffer.
  • To compare individual capacities across attentional and VSTM tasks within the same session.
  • To determine the relationship between attentional and VSTM capacities under varying task demands.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized multiple object tracking (MOT) to assess attentional capacity.
  • Employed a VSTM change detection task to measure VSTM capacity.
  • Manipulated distractor levels in both tasks to examine filtering demands and their impact on capacity.

Main Results:

  • No significant capacity correlations were found between MOT and VSTM tasks when distractor filtering demands differed.
  • Significant correlations emerged when both tasks shared spatial filtering demands.
  • The impact of spatial filtering demands on capacity was consistent across both attention and VSTM tasks.

Conclusions:

  • Findings do not support a shared buffer model for visual attention and VSTM capacity limitations.
  • Task-specific resource demands, particularly filtering demands, play a crucial role in determining capacity.
  • The results emphasize the influence of underlying process resource requirements on cognitive capacity limits.