ABSTRACT
Human beings have the capacity for retaining information on a temporary basis, and for manipulating, transforming, and reinterpreting that information during the performance of a wide range of everyday tasks. For around three decades, this range of abilities has been referred to as working memory. During that time a large literature has been established with continued growth at an accelerated pace, offering evidence that working memory has a role in holding partial solutions during problem solving, reasoning, and mental arithmetic, supporting the acquisition of vocabulary and the comprehension of language both written and spoken, and in aiding mental discovery and creativity. Working memory also offers temporary memory for words and numbers, for the visual appearance of objects and scenes, for the location of objects, and for routes through unfamiliar environments.
