From the June 2008 Scientific American Mind | 0 comments

Your Inner Spam Filter ( Preview )

What makes you so smart? Might be your lizard brain

By Andrew W. McCollough and Edward K. Vogel

More from this issue of Mind

June
2008 Issue
Illusions Sliding Stripes
Head Lines The Cubicle Bully: Workplace Conflict Ruins Careers
Facts and Fictions in Mental Health Is Animal Assisted Therapy Really the Cat's Meow?
Buy the Digital Edition

Anyone who has tried to find an urgent e-mail amid masses of advertisements for dubious stock opportunities and sexual-enhancement drugs understands the critical importance of being able to filter out distracting information. That e-mail you seek may be in there, but it is lost among irrelevant clutter.

Although the capacity of our computer’s e-mail in-box is limited only by disk space, our mental “in-box” of working memory—the brain regions and processes that create temporary storage—is much more constrained. In fact, several decades of research have indicated that our capacity to hold information “in mind” for immediate use is limited to a mere three or four items.

If your institution has site license access, enter here.

Read Comments (0) | Post a comment

Discuss This Article

Click here to submit your comment.

VIEW:



	Email:
	Name:
	Address:
	Address 2:
	City:
	State:

Subscription Center

Editor's Pick

Adapting to the Freshwater CrisisForward-thinking experts are getting a better handle on the growing global water shortage and coming up with innovative approaches to ensuring the security, safety and sustainability of this resource