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Working Memory

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this information.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Published on: June 12, 2017

Indirect assessment of visual working memory for simple and complex objects.

Tal Makovski¹, Yuhong V Jiang

¹Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. tal.makovski@gmail.com

Memory & Cognition

|October 18, 2008

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Visual search is faster when targets are within shapes held in visual working memory (VWM). This effect, however, weakens with higher memory loads and simpler shapes, indicating VWM representation strength influences search.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Visual search performance is influenced by irrelevant information in visual working memory (VWM).
Faster visual search occurs when targets, not distractors, are associated with VWM contents.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate properties of visual working memory (VWM) using visual search modulation.
Assess VWM representation strength through congruity effects in visual search.

Main Methods:

Participants memorized novel polygons (varying in figure goodness) by color or shape.
During retention, participants performed a visual search task for a tilted line among vertical lines within polygons.
Measured reaction times to assess the congruity effect between search items and VWM contents.

Main Results:

Visual search was faster when the target, compared to a distractor, was enclosed by remembered polygons.
The congruity effect decreased as memory load increased.
The congruity effect diminished with decreasing figure goodness of remembered polygons.

Conclusions:

Congruity effects in visual search provide an indirect measure of visual working memory (VWM) representation strength.
VWM representation strength is sensitive to memory load and stimulus properties like figure goodness.