WE ALL HAVE MEMORIES, and one way to understand them is to use them under controlled conditions. H ow often have you heard someone say, "I have a terrible memory?" This article examines human memory and, in particular, working memory. 

C. G. Jung writes: "What we call memory is this faculty to reproduce unconscious contents, and it is the first function we can clearly distinguish in its relationship between our consciousness and the contents that are actually not in view." Psychologists today describe memory in terms of four stages: Sensory memory, Short-memory, Working memory, and Long-term memory.

One view is that short-term memory represents the same system as long-term memory, but is used under rather special conditions which result in very little long-term retention. An alternative view is that long-term and short-term memory involve separate systems, although they are very closely integrated in operation. Yet another view is that short-term memory represents not one but a complex set of interacting subsystems that together are referred to as working memory. 
How working memory works

Working memory is clearly useful if you are trying to understand a spoken sentence, or remember a string of digits.

In addition, if a person simultaneously needs to perform other mental tasks such as reasoning, short-term memory must allocate available cognitive resources.

Short-term memory is like the control tower of a major airport, responsible for scheduling and coordinating all incoming and outgoing flights. 

Baddeley, D. Alan. The Psychology of Memory. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1976.

Bolles, B. Edmund. Remembering and Forgetting: Inquiries into the Nature of Memory. New York: Walker and Co., Inc., 1988.

Deutsch, Diana. Short-term Memory. New York: Academic press, Inc., 1975.

Hanieh Orangi ，Graduate Student, SDSU Department of Educational Technology