What is Working Memory

Working memory refers to the temporary storage in human brain. It is characterized by a central executive function which has two sub-systems: phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad.

A cognitive system with a limited capacity to hold information temporarily so that it can be manipulated by higher-level brain processes.

A cognitive domain that has a limited capacity for information. It causes difficulties in reasoning and decision-making.

A cognitive system with a limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding and processing information.

The cognitive process of temporary storage of information, with the aim of promptly recalling and concurrently processing it.

A temporary memory store responsible for the active processing of information; the most widely accepted model is that by cognitive psychologist Alan D. Baddeley who proposed the model of working memory.

A temporally-limited ability to concurrently store, process, and manipulate information

The ability to maintain and process information mentally.

Working memory is the theoretical framework in cognitive psychology that describes the processes for processing and storing information. Baddeley & Hitch (1974) made the model of working memory. It consists of one main system, “central executive,” and two slave systems, “phonological loop” and “visuospatical sketch pad.”

A cognitive skill that allows one to hold on to one piece of information while processing other information. Working memory is involved in skills such as problem solving and reading comprehension ( Borella, Carretti, Cornoldi, & De Beni, 2020 ).

Working memory is a theoretical framework that refers to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information. According to Baddeley and Hitch (1974), the working memory consists of two “slave systems” responsible for short-term maintenance of information, and a “central executive” responsible for the supervision of information integration and for coordinating the slave systems. One slave system, the articulatory loop, stores phonological information and prevents its decay by silently articulating its contents, thereby refreshing the information in a rehearsal loop. The other slave system, the visuo-spatial sketch pad, stores visual and spatial information. It can be used, for example, for constructing and manipulating visual images, and for the representation of mental maps. The sketch pad can be further broken down into a visual subsystem (dealing with, for instance, shape, color, and texture), and a spatial subsystem (dealing with location). The central executive system is, among other things, responsible for directing attention to relevant information, suppressing irrelevant information and inappropriate actions, and coordinating cognitive processes when more than one task must be done at the same time. Studies show that the working memory is very limited in both duration and capacity. The working memory typically stores about seven elements but normally operates on only two or three elements.

The limited pool of cognitive resources dedicated to both short-term storage and processing.

The part of our memory which temporarily holds a limited amount of information.

A storage place in the dual model. It is the conscious part of the brain with limited capacity (5-9 units of information), and short duration of information storage (about 30 seconds).

The working memory model proposed by Baddeley defines working memory as a temporary information processing storage within human brain that consists of three key components: central executive and two slave subsystems (phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad). The phonological loop processes auditory information like sound, music, etc. The visuo-spatial sketchpad processes visual information like text, images, animation, etc. The central executive allocates attention to the slave subsystems and coordinates the operation of working memory. Within working memory, the auditory and visual information interact to form mental representations of the external object.

A limited capacity system that holds information while it is being processed; this constrains a learner’s ability to process other new information at the same time.

Denotes the memory capable of transient preservation of information, which is functionally different from the memory that stores historical information (long-term memory).

The ability to transiently store and manipulate information.

The cognitive process of temporary storage of information, with the aim of promptly recalling and concurrently processing it.

Ability to hold and process thoughts or information.

A newer conceptualization of short term memory, only can hold information for 15-20 seconds ( Peterson & Peterson, 1959 ).

The part of short-term memory which is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.

Working memory is a theoretical framework that refers to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information. According to Baddeley and Hitch (1974), the working memory consists of two “slave systems” responsible for short-term maintenance of information, and a “central executive” responsible for the supervision of information integration and for coordinating the slave systems. One slave system, the articulatory loop, stores phonological information and prevents its decay by silently articulating its contents, thereby refreshing the information in a rehearsal loop. The other slave system, the visuo-spatial sketch pad, stores visual and spatial information. It can be used, for example, for constructing and manipulating visual images, and for the representation of mental maps. The sketch pad can be further broken down into a visual subsystem (dealing with, for instance, shape, color, and texture), and a spatial subsystem (dealing with location). The central executive system is, among other things, responsible for directing attention to relevant information, suppressing irrelevant information and inappropriate actions, and coordinating cognitive processes when more than one task must be done at the same time. Studies show that the working memory is very limited in both duration and capacity. The working memory typically stores about seven elements but normally operates on only two or three elements.

A short-term memory system comprised of a central executive (associated with attention) and several slave sub-systems (associated with storage of items of a particular types such verbal-phonological, visuo-spatial, episodic). The key feature of working memory is that it deals with both the short-term storage of information and the processing of that information within the same cognitive system.

The component of an expert system that contains answers to the questions and partial results obtained during inference.