What is working memory? How it works and how to test yours
Working memory is the mental workspace you use to hold a phone number, follow directions or do sums in your head. Here’s how it works, its limits, and how to test it.
Working memory is the mental workspace that holds information for a few seconds while you do something with it. It’s what you’re using when you keep a phone number in mind until you dial it, follow a set of directions, or add up a bill in your head. It’s small, it’s fast, and it’s easily disrupted.
Working memory vs short-term memory
The two terms are often used as if they were the same, and they’re closely related. The difference is in the job:
- Short-term memory means simply holding information for a short time, like remembering a list of words for a few seconds.
- Working memory means holding information and working with it: reordering it, comparing it, doing sums with it.
Repeating digits in order leans on short-term memory. Repeating them backwards needs working memory, because you have to rearrange them as you go.
How working memory is organized
The most influential model comes from psychologists Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch, first proposed in 1974. It describes working memory as a team of parts:
- The phonological loop: an inner voice that holds words and numbers by repeating them silently.
- The visuospatial sketchpad: a mental whiteboard for images and positions.
- The central executive: the manager that directs attention and decides what to work on.
- The episodic buffer: added to the model in 2000, it ties information together and links it to long-term memory.
This explains an everyday experience: you can picture a map while listening to directions fairly easily, because they use different parts. But try remembering a phone number while someone reads you another one, and both collapse, because they compete for the same inner voice.
How much can it hold?
In 1956, George Miller famously proposed that people hold about seven items, plus or minus two. Later research, notably by Nelson Cowan, suggests the true limit is closer to four chunks. The two fit together: we reach seven digits because we group them into a few chunks without noticing.
That’s the key idea. Working memory doesn’t count items, it counts chunks. “F B I C I A” is six letters but two chunks for most people. Experts in any field have huge working memories for their subject because they’ve learned to see big, meaningful chunks.
How to test your working memory
A few simple tests each target a different part:
- Numbers: a number memory test or digit span test measures the phonological loop.
- Positions: a visual memory test measures the visuospatial sketchpad.
- Order: a sequence memory test measures holding and replaying steps in order.
Daily Recall has a free game for each, and the Memory Profile puts your results together to show which kind of memory comes most naturally to you.
What gets in the way
Distraction: interruptions wipe working memory almost instantly. Stress and anxiety: worry takes up space, which is part of why exams feel harder than practice. Tiredness: poor sleep reliably lowers scores. Multitasking: two tasks that use the same part compete for the same limited space.
Making the most of your working memory
Whether “brain training” improves working memory in general is still debated; our guide Do brain games work? covers the research honestly. What clearly helps is working with its limits:
Chunk information into groups. Write things down so your working memory is free for thinking. Do one thing at a time when it matters. Sleep well before anything demanding. For more, see how to improve your short-term memory.
Frequently asked questions
What is working memory in simple terms?
It’s the small mental workspace that holds information for a few seconds while you use it, like keeping a phone number in mind until you dial it.
How much can working memory hold?
Roughly four chunks of information at once, according to much of the research. For digits, people typically manage around seven because they group them automatically.
Can you improve working memory?
You can get much better at specific tasks with practice and strategies like chunking. Whether training one task improves working memory in general is still debated.