New Study from Vanessa Lee Explores How Attention Shapes Memory

How does the brain decide what information to remember while multitasking? New research co-authored by Vanessa Lee, faculty, investigates how occurrences in which one detects important information can strengthen memory for unrelated information present at the same moment.

In a study “Roles of target detection and behavioral response on pupil dilation and concurrent memory: An attentional boost study,” published by the Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (available on National Library of Medicine), researchers examined the “attentional boost effect,” a phenomenon in which responding to a target event enhances the processing of other stimuli presented at the same time. The research explored how both target detection and behavioral responses influence attention, physiological arousal, and memory.

The results showed that memory improved for images presented at the moment participants detected and responded to targets. Physiological responses indicated that behavioral responses, such as button pressing, played a particularly strong role in driving attention-related arousal, suggesting that both perceptual detection and response goals contributed to the attentional boost effect.

By combining behavioral experiments with physiological measures, the study provides new insight into how attention and action interact to shape memory formation. The findings help clarify how people process multiple streams of information at once, which is an ability essential for everyday tasks that require rapid decision-making and focus.

Composed by Nguyen Kiet Pham, communications assistant.