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Wize University Psychology Textbook > Memory

Short-Term & Working Memory

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Short-Term & Working Memory


Short-term memory stores a limited number of items (5-9) for up to approximately one minute.

This allows us to complete many daily tasks, like remembering our grocery list while walking through the produce section.

Information from sensory memory is moved into short-term memory through attention. Information from short-term memory is moved into long-term memory through rehearsal.


Watch Out!
The way psychologists use the term "short-term memory" is very different from how it is used in every day life!




Chunking is a process by which we reduce the number of items we have to remember by grouping them. This is usually on the basis of prior knowledge. Instead of remembering 10 individual letters, we remember 3 words.


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Working Memory

Short-term memory is a storage system, whereas working memory is a way of processing and manipulating information.



Four components:
  • phonological loop - processing of speech and speech-like sounds through articulatory rehearsal (repeating it to ourselves)
  • visuospatial sketchpad - processing of visual and spatial information
  • episodic buffer - multi-model storage
  • central executive - directs and maintains attention, coordinates the actions of the subsystems
Photo by Babbage / CC BY

Practice: Short-Term & Working Memory

Which of the following is not true about short-term memory?

Practice: Short-Term & Working Memory

Which of the following is a strategy used to remember more items in short term memory?

Practice: Short-Term & Working Memory

The main difference between working memory and short term memory is: