Research Interests and Publications:

Research in Dr. Awh's laboratory focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of selective attention and working memory. A core area of research uses behavioral and neural measures to examine the factors that determine capacity in working memory, and the relationship between these capacity limits and other measures of attentional control. In addition, we seek to understand how precise representations of visual detail can be held in working memory, using psychophysical paradigms and multi-voxel pattern classification and functional MRI. 

Selected Publications:

Ester, E.F., Drew, T.W., Klee, D., Vogel, E.K., & Awh, E. (in press). Neural measures reveal a fixed item limit in subitizing. Journal of Neuroscience.

Anderson, D.E., Vogel, E.K., & Awh, E. (2011). Precision in visual working memory reaches a plateau when individual item-limits are exceeded. Journal of Neuroscience.

Fukuda, K., Vogel, E.K., Mayr, U., & Awh, E. (2010). Quantity not quality: The relationship between fluid intelligence and working memory capacity. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17(5), 673-679.

Barton, B., Ester, E., & Awh, E. (2009). Discrete resource allocation in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Ester, E.F., Serences, J.T., & Awh, E. (2009). Spatially global representations in human primary visual cortex during working memory maintenance. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(48), 15258-15265.

Serences, J., Ester, E., Vogel, E.K., & Awh, E. (2009).  Stimulus-specific delay activity in human primary visual cortex. Psychological Science, 20(2), 207-214.

Awh, E., Barton, B., Vogel, E.K. (2007). Visual working memory represents a fixed number of items, regardless of complexity. Psychological Science.

Awh, E., Armstrong, K.M., & Moore, T. (2006). Visual and oculomotor selection: links, causes and implications for spatial attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(3), 124-130.