The connection between attention functions and memory performance Attention is a central component of cognitive ability. The ability to focus attention, encode and maintain information are among the brain’s most important cognitive functions. Since Working Memory and attention share common neural mechanisms (e.g., Gazzaley and Nobre, 2012) , enhancement of attention improves encoding, maintenance and retrieval of items held in WM for online usage (Karbach and Verhaeghen, 2014
