Working memory

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working memory

Basic Characteristics

• Description

Working memory is most easily defined as our ability to maintain and manipulate information over short periods of time. The term working memory is often refered to as a unitary construct although many professionals agree that working memory is a combination of different component processes. A more comprhensive description of working memory is that it is a system or mechanism where information is represented, maintained, and updated for a short period of time. Here the process of maintaining representation active above the threshold so that the activation of information relevant to the current task can be maintained under the focus of attention is emphasized.

• History

• References

Related Information

• Cognitive construct associated with this task (vote for your favorite, or nominate a new construct label by editing this page):
  • Delayed Response, Digit Span, Wisconsin Card Sort (WCST)

• Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this task (vote or nominate by editing this page):

• Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):

• CNP Level
  • Cognitive Concept

External Resources

• Links out:
  • Google: working memory
  • Wikipedia: working memory
  • PubBrain: working memory
  • PubMed: working memory
  • -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)

• Database links
  • Phenowiki Papers For working memory

Task Details

• Task Structure (please given an overview of the task procedures here [i.e., overall design, block, trial, and within-trial event structure and timing])
  • procedure
    • block
      • trial
• Stimulus Characteristics
  • sensory modality (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory):
  • functional modality (e.g., linguistic, spatial, numerical, categorical):
  • presentation modality (e.g., human examiner, paper, computer display, headphones, speaker):
• Response Characteristics
  • response required -
    • effector modality (e.g., vocal, manual, pedal):
    • functional modality (e.g., words, drawing, writing, keypress, movement):
  • response options (e.g., yes/no, go/no-go, forced choice, multiple choice [specify n of options], free response)-
  • response collection (e.g., examiner notes, keyboard, keypad, mouse, voice key, button press)-