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Strengthening the Connection Between Memory and Attention Span

Miguelángel Guédez
/
Flickr

The brain is a funny thing. You could be listening to your favorite radio show, say, when something catches your eye. Before you realize it, your mind has wandered and you've lost track of what you were just listening to.

UW-Milwaukee researcher Debbie Hannula studies the very real impact of this phenomenon. In fact, Hannula, who is a professor of psychology at UWM, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to examine how memory affects your attention.

"All of these brain regions are highly interconnected, and so recently, researches have become increasingly interested in how these processes might cooperate to support cognitive or behavioral performance," she says.

Hannula recently stopped by the Lake Effect studio to get our attention, and explain the research: