Distinguishing short-term memory from working memory

Short Term and Working Memory

Short-term memory (STM) refers to the active retention (for humans, the ‘keeping in mind’) of information when it is not accessible from the environment. Working memory can be thought of as ‘STMþ,’ the ‘þ’ referring to the ability to manipulate or otherwise transform this information, to protect it in the face of interference, and to use it in the service of such high-level behaviors as plannin...

Working memory training improves visual short-term memory capacity.

Since antiquity, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have been interested in human memory. However, researchers today are still working to understand the capabilities, boundaries, and architecture. While the storage capabilities of long-term memory are seemingly unlimited (Bahrick, J Exp Psychol 113:1-2, 1984), working memory, or the ability to maintain and manipulate information held in ...

Short-term memory as a working memory control process

Aben et al. (2012) take issue with the unthoughtful use of the terms “working memory” (WM) and “short-term memory” (STM) in the cognitive and neuroscientific literature. Whereas I agree that neuroscientists using the term WM to refer to sustained neural activation and cognitive psychologists using the terms interchangeably reflects that the field has lost control over its own dictionary, the re...

About the Distinction between Working Memory and Short-Term Memory

The theoretical concepts short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) have been used to refer to the maintenance and the maintenance plus manipulation of information, respectively. Although they are conceptually different, the use of the terms STM and WM in literature is not always strict. STM and WM are different theoretical concepts that are assumed to reflect different cognitive functions...

Short-term memory both as working memory and as a basis for long-term memory