Social Working Memory: a Systematic Review

Social Working Memory (SWM) refers to the ability to maintain and manipulate socio-cognitive information-such as others' mental states, intentions, emotions, and traits-in order to guide social interactions. This systematic review aimed to (1) synthesize theoretical conceptualizations of SWM, (2) examine experimental paradigms and measurement protocols, and (3) outline future research directions. Literature searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus, following the PRISMA guidelines. Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings revealed that: (a) it is a promising construct for social neuroscience, but it still requires greater conceptual precision; (b) the most frequently used paradigm involved mentally ranking friends according to personality traits during a delay period, a task capturing both maintenance and manipulation demands of SWM; and (c) future studies should focus on the development of tasks targeting specific domains, on further exploring the neural substrates of SWM, and on clarifying its relationship with other cognitive functions. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic mapping of SWM in the literature. The findings suggest that SWM is a promising but still developing construct that requires greater conceptual precision and psychometric support. This review provides a framework for future research and methodological refinement.