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

People can hold only a certain number of objects in their awareness, or working memory, at one time. —Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 9 Nov. 2023

The authors identified that children with hearing loss can struggle with auditory attention and auditory working memory. —Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 13 July 2023

Learning math promotes working memory, improves attention, and increases other basic cognitive skills. —Parents Editors, Parents, 23 Aug. 2023

Just take a few minutes to do it: The act can actually lower inflammation markers in your body and boost your working memory. —Marty Munson, Men's Health, 16 Aug. 2023

Dubal’s research team tested the working memory capacity of 18 rhesus macaques, whose ages were about equivalent to 65 in human years. —WIRED, 3 July 2023

Researchers found lower levels of muscle mass were associated with greater decline in executive function skills—used for problem solving, attention, organization and working memory—over the course of three years compared to those with higher muscular levels among Canadians aged 65 to 86. —Madeline Halpert, Forbes, 1 July 2022

They’re plagued by side effects, from extreme lethargy to unwanted facial movements, and rarely address the cognitive symptoms of psychosis, like social withdrawal and poor working memory. —WIRED, 7 Aug. 2023

The average human only has the working memory to focus on four things at once. —Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 18 July 2023

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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