working memory

noun

: memory that involves storing, focusing attention on, and manipulating information for a relatively short period of time (such as a few seconds)

A simple activity involving working memory is the carry-over operation in mental arithmetic, which requires temporarily storing a string of numbers and holding the sum of one addition in mind while calculating the next.

—Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic

Your short-term memory might help you to remember what someone has just said to you, for example, but your working memory would allow you to recite it to them backwards or pick out the first letter of each word.

—Jonathan K. Foster

compare long-term memory, short-term memory

Examples of working memory in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Life Chimps beat humans in these cognitive tests Their working memory outclasses ours. —Big Think, 24 June 2024

Positive health impacts include reducing cortisol levels, relieving anxiety and depression and improving cognition allowing for better concentration and working memory. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 28 Apr. 2024

Deprivation is typified by a delay in the development of the brain’s executive functions—attention, short-term working memory, self-regulation, and planning. —Marc D. Hauser, TIME, 3 Apr. 2024

New experimental techniques are showing that in addition to controlling movement, the cerebellum regulates complex behaviors, social interactions, aggression, working memory, learning, emotion, and more. —R Douglas Fields, WIRED, 31 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

working memory

noun

: memory that involves storing, focusing attention on, and manipulating information for a relatively short period of time (such as a few seconds)

A simple activity involving working memory is the carry-over operation in mental arithmetic, which requires temporarily storing a string of numbers and holding the sum of one addition in mind while calculating the next.

—Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic, Scientific American

Your short-term memory might help you to remember what someone has just said to you, for example, but your working memory would allow you to recite it to them backwards or pick out the first letter of each word.

—Jonathan K. Foster, New Scientist