Evidently, higher levels of cognition (or, at least, visual working memory) isn’t so much a matter of remembering a lot, but of ignoring stuff that’s not important to remember. Which, if you work on computers, makes a lot of sense — “data mining” and filters and so forth are a key to intelligent use of data. You have to have capacity, but then you have to do something with it.
Memory is not just a library — it’s a library with a good purchasing agent.
“Until now, it’s been assumed that people with high capacity visual working memory had greater storage but actually, it’s about the bouncer ? a neural mechanism that controls what information gets into awareness,” Vogel said.
The findings turn upside down the popular concept that a person’s memory capacity, which is strongly related to intelligence, is solely dependent upon the amount of information you can cram into your head at one time. These results have broad implications and may lead to developing more effective ways to optimize memory as well as improved diagnosis and treatment of cognitive deficits associated with attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia.
(via BoingBoing)