the.com/working memory
the brain's sticky note, seven digits long and gone in thirty seconds.
means the mental workspace that holds a small amount of information active so you can use it right now, like remembering a number just long enough to dial it.
from coined in the 1960s by psychologists baddeley and hitch, who split memory into a short-term holding pen with an active manager, replacing the older idea of one big short-term storage box.
capacity limitabout four chunks, not seven, revised in 2001
decay speedgone in 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal
not storageit manipulates information, long-term memory just stores it
adhd linkweak working memory often mistaken for laziness
for instance
mental math — holding 47 plus 38 while carrying the tens digit
phone number recall — remembering a code just long enough to type it in
reading comprehension — tracking a sentence's subject across ten intervening clauses
n-back task — the lab test researchers use to measure this capacity