How does working memory influence perceptual processes?

It is generally thought that working memory peaks at young adulthood. However, a study by Vladimir Sloutsky and Anna Fisher counters this belief. The researchers counter that very young children tend to similarity-based induction when examining pictures, whereas adults use category-based induction (or top-down processing using feature comparison model, or prototype approach). When the adults used category information, they would filter out unrelated information and have more trouble recalling specifics. On the other hand, the children who used similarity-based induction encoded specific items about each picture that helped them remember it later. These findings tie back to the Wolfe, Butcher, Lee, and Hyle study on priming, which found that implicit priming targeted to young children is just as effective as top down guidance targeted to older children or adults.

The study by Tremblay, Parmentier, Geraud, Nicholls, & Jones tested whether the classical modality effect -- that is, the stronger recency effect for auditory items relative to visual items -- can be extended to the spatial domain. The results demonstrated a modality effect -- greater recency in the auditory than in the visual modality -- in the recall of verbal items but not of spatial items. The results also suggested that the recency effect is stronger in the auditory modality than in the visual modality.

The two main points I draw from the research on working memory and perception are as follows:

1) Children have a visual strength in their working memory; adults tend to filter out details.
2) People have better recall for recent auditory stimulus. The serial order of visual stimuli did not seem to matter as much.