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

One of their main machines was a CDC 1604 with 192 KB of RAM—about 21,000 times less working memory than a basic modern smartphone. —Shaun Raviv, WIRED, 21 Jan. 2020

Some research also suggests preserving cognitive functioning early on may result in better functional outcomes (i.e., better working memory). —Michelle Pugle, Verywell Health, 15 Oct. 2024

Meanwhile, our brain recruits our spatial working memory, which evolved to track our location in physical space, to orient our words within a whole. —Cal Newport, The New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2024

The mainstay task was a psychological mental test that involved remembering a sequence of letters (the N-back working memory test). —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 30 Sep. 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