Working Memory: Definition, Importance, & Ways to Boost It

Although working memory is a crucial cognitive skill, there are many misconceptions about what it actually entails. Laymen frequently use it interchangeably with short-term memory, believing these two to be essentially the same.

However, as our research has shown, that’s not the case. In fact, we’ve consulted experts to gain a deeper insight into what it is, why it’s important, and how it differs from short-term and long-term memory.

Here are some of our findings.

Key Takeaways

• In psychology, working memory is a cognitive skill that helps you briefly store information, manipulate it, and use it to solve tasks.
• Working memory is important for learning, communicating, performing cognitive tasks, following instructions, and making connections.
• It can be negatively affected by ADHD, aging, mental disorders, head injuries, dementia, and stress.
• You can improve your working memory by playing cards and board games, reducing multitasking, developing a routine, breaking information down into smaller chunks, and making associations.

What Is Working Memory?

What Is Working Memory?

Working memory is one of the brain’s cognitive skills that allows you to briefly store and manipulate the information you’re working with. For instance, when you’re doing a math problem, it’s thanks to working memory that you can keep the numbers in mind for as long as you need to complete the task.

Manipulating information is a crucial part of the definition of working memory. Namely, this is the only aspect that differentiates working memory from short-term memory, which is in charge of storing information for up to 30 seconds.

In fact, some experts propose that short-term memory is part of the larger system that is working memory. In other words, short-term memory stores the information so that working memory can then manipulate and use it for completing certain tasks.

Aside from accessing and using information from short-term memory, working memory can also extract information from long-term memory and apply it to tasks in the present. A good example is reading—to help you understand a text, your working memory uses semantic memory, a type of long-term memory, to recall word meanings.

Why Is Working Memory Important?

Working memory is important because it’s regularly used when performing a variety of everyday tasks, from running simple errands to solving complex problems at work. As a result, when it doesn’t function as well as it should, that can negatively reflect on your overall productivity and efficiency.

Here are some further examples of why working memory matters in your day-to-day life:

• Learning. Working memory allows you to hold, process, categorize, and organize information in your head, which is crucial for successful learning. The better it is, the quicker you are at grasping new concepts and storing them in your long-term memory.
• Communicating. Communication may seem simple on the outside, but your working memory is hard at work behind the scenes to ensure it all runs smoothly. After all, you need to simultaneously receive and store information, recall past knowledge, and connect it all together to communicate effectively.
• Performing cognitive tasks. Without working memory, you wouldn’t be able to solve math problems, read, or engage in hobbies such as playing an instrument. All these processes require you to quickly store information so that you can apply it in different ways.
• Making connections. Your ability to connect and synthesize information is directly related to working memory—it allows you to recall a piece of information from your long-term memory and associate it with new data.
• Following instructions. Working memory allows you to understand and follow instructions without having to check the steps over and over again.

How Does Working Memory Change Over Time?

Working memory correlates strongly with fluid intelligence—it reaches its peak in adolescence and young adulthood and then slowly begins declining with age.

This decline isn’t noticeable until old age, when cognitive skills in general lose some of their edge. However, once the decline begins, it becomes obvious that working memory is particularly susceptible to aging.

Several theories have been proposed to explain this decline in working memory in old age. One of the most popular ones stipulates that it’s caused by the decrease in processing speed, which makes working memory less efficient by reducing its ability to store new information until the old is processed.

On the other hand, some researchers believe processing speed isn’t the issue—it’s the inability to inhibit irrelevant information from entering working memory. Our ability to discard irrelevant content decreases with age, which leads to cluttered working memory and reduced functionality.

However, neither of these theories has yet been confirmed to be entirely true. Scientists have yet to discover the exact mechanisms that underpin the decline of working memory with age.

Working Memory vs. Long-Term Memory

A women staring in the distance

Unlike working memory, which is rather short-term, long-term memory is what we usually have in mind when we speak about memory. This is where you store all your friends’ and family’s birthdays, memories from holidays, and pretty much any information that doesn’t disappear within 30 seconds.

Long-term memory has unlimited capacity, and it can store information for days, weeks, months, or even your entire lifetime. That largely depends on how important those particular memories are and how frequently you call upon them. Every time you do, the information gets consolidated and is less likely to be forgotten.

Even though working memory is basically the opposite of long-term memory, the two often work together.

As mentioned before, working memory retrieves information from long-term memory to perform various tasks. Most frequently, it does so by accessing semantic and episodic memory, both of which are crucial aspects of long-term memory.

Working memory

Stores information for only up to 30 seconds

Capacity is limited to approximately seven elements

Used for storing and manipulating information

Very susceptible to Alzheimer’s and dementia

Long-term memory

Can store information for a lifetime

Unlimited capacity

Used exclusively for storing information

May not be instantly affected by Alzheimer’s

or dementia

What Affects Working Memory: ADHD, Age, & More

Working memory can be affected by numerous factors, such as ADHD, Alzheimer’s, age, head injury, mental disorders, and stress.

Let’s take a look at these factors in more detail:

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD can cause deficits in working memory because it makes concentrating on specific information difficult. And when you’re not properly focused, information can’t be adequately stored, and it slips out much faster.
• Alzheimer’s. Working memory is also impaired in people with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. Generally speaking, dementia impacts memory as a whole—not just working memory but also long-term and semantic memory.
• Age. As mentioned before, working memory decreases with age, along with other aspects of cognition. In theory, slow decline begins soon after young adulthood, but it really only becomes apparent in old age.
• Head injury. After suffering a head injury, people frequently experience cognitive impairment that leads to slower processing speed. As a result, their working memory can’t retrieve and use information as quickly as before the injury.
• Mental disorders. Anxiety and depression can slow down the brain and negatively influence working memory and its functionality. In fact, mental conditions can impact memory as a whole, along with other cognitive skills.
• Stress. Although mild stress can actually improve working memory and help you process information faster, prolonged stress is detrimental to your cognitive abilities. It can overburden your brain, causing it to slow down or even freeze up entirely.

5 Ways to Improve Working Memory

5 Ways to Improve Working Memory

Problems with working memory can impact your everyday life as well as your ability to effectively communicate, memorize information, and perform to your fullest potential. Even if you don’t have a concrete problem, it’s good to exercise your memory and keep it in good shape as you age.

Here are some of the ways to boost your working memory and improve your overall cognitive performance:

• Reduce multitasking. Even if multitasking may seem like a good way to increase your efficiency and improve cognition, it’s actually the opposite—juggling a few tasks at once can, in fact, negatively affect working memory. So, it’s better to focus on one thing at a time and give your brain time for processing.
• Break the information into smaller pieces. Instead of trying to digest large swaths of data or memorize instructions with many steps, find a way to break down information into small chunks. Information is far easier to remember and manipulate that way.
• Develop routines. As mentioned before, working memory can only hold up to seven items at a time. By developing routines, you ensure your brain isn’t cluttered by unimportant information that slows it down and that it’s free to focus on the tasks that actually matter.
• Play cards. Playing cards engages and tests your working memory directly by forcing you to memorize simple rules and keep track of the cards you and other people played. This doesn’t apply only to cards, either—most board games can serve the same purpose.
• Make associations. Whenever you make connections between two pieces of information, you’re using your working memory. So, one of the best ways to train it is to use mnemonics and come up with associations when memorizing information.

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Final Thoughts

As a crucial cognitive skill, working memory is one of the factors that determine intelligence, and, therefore, it’s measured on all standardized IQ tests. It also has an immense impact on your day-to-day life, although you’re likely unaware of that unless you experience problems with it.

Like any skill, working memory can improve with practice and stagnate if it’s not challenged enough. So, make sure to exercise it whenever you can—your overall thinking and performance will drastically improve.