The current review examined how information is processed in the brain. Specifically, I investigated whether multiple inputs encoded into the brain are processed in a serial manner or they are processed in parallel. An extensive review of the literature regarding behavioral and neuroscientific studies revealed that whether information is processed in a serial or parallel manner depends on the stage of human information processing. Specifically, at the early, perceptual stage, multiple inputs can be processed in parallel as perceptual resource can be flexibly allocated to the inputs, whereas at the central stage, only a single input can be processed at a time. This review elucidates the cases in which serial or parallel processing is implemented in the brain, contributing to better understanding of how the capacity-limited brain hands information overload.
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