New Findings on Attention and Working Memory by Hannah Joy on April 1, 2021 at 8:00 PM Attention and working memory are two sides of the same neural coin; as they share the same neural mechanisms, reveals a new study. In 1890, psychologist William James described attention as the spotlight we shine not only on the world around us, but also on the contents of our minds. Most cognitive scientists since then have drawn a sharp distinction between what James termed "sensorial attention" and "intellectual attention," now usually called "attention" and "working memory," but James saw them as two varieties of the same mental process.