It seems to be a tenet of ordinary common sense that people remember what they attend to and forget what they do not. Not surprisingly, researchers have noted the very close relationship between attention and memory for a very long time, and some empirical evidence for the linkage was offered as far back as the late nineteenth century (Smith, 1895). However, it was only during the twentieth century, with the advent of cognitive psychology and its relatively rich array of methods for studying human information processing over fine time scales, that it became possible to begin to analyze this connection in more detail. To do so, researchers have used taxonomies of memorial and attentional processes that emerge from laboratory studies in each of these areas.

Forms of Attention

The term attention as used in everyday language is a diffuse and global term that alludes to...