Temporary retention and use of information for ongoing cognition and action. Its explanation must account for capacity, precision, interference, prioritization and updating. Persistent neural activity and activity-silent working memory describe candidate mechanisms or states rather than interchangeable definitions of the behavioral capacity.
Temporary maintenance and manipulation of information in service of an ongoing task. Retaining intermediate arithmetic results or integrating a sentence with earlier text can tax working memory. A simple immediate span and a task requiring storage plus processing need not measure the same demand. Improvements in structurally similar memory tests are not sufficient evidence for improved academic achievement.[ref]
Does working memory training lead to generalized improvements in children with low working memory? by Darren L. Dunning and others. Developmental Science 16, 915–925; three-arm randomised trial, Results and Discussion
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