Memory and attention

The effect of attention on memory was examined in three studies. In all three, the subjects were instructed to remember the items of one color from an array that contained items of two colors. Subsequently, the subjects were asked to reproduce items of both colors. Almost all of the items that the subjects remembered were those to which they had attended. The parameters of sex, color, and mode of presentation (verbal and drawing) were not significant. Head injury did not disrupt this effect. On the basis of this effect, it was theorized that the strength of a memory store is related directly to the strength of attention.