Working memory is a part of the human memory system with limited capacity. The job of working memory is to temporarily hold information for processing. Working memory refers to the storage of information without manipulation. Working memory capacity is generally considered to be a limited capacity. Miller in 1956 suggested the “magic number seven” as a working memory capacity. He called the items "pieces", said that the information capacity of young adults is about seven pieces, and said that the items that do not matter are digits, letters, words, or any other category, but subsequent research revealed that the category is important, the capacity depends on the category of blocks, for example eight for digits, seven for letters and six for words. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Measures of working memory can be tested by some tasks. For example, Daneman and Carpenter invented the "reading span" task in 1980. Subjects read sentences usually between two and six, then try to remember the last word of the sentences, then repeat the words in the correct order. As for the effect of aging on working memory, the capacity of working memory gradually decreases as one gets older, obviously after childhood, since the capacity of working memory gradually increases during childhood. As for the importance of working memory, if we didn't have working memory, we also wouldn't have long-term memory because all the information in long-term memory is directed by working memory. When we will talk about the structure of working memory there are different models of working memory, so first of all the most accepted one is The Multicomponent Model by Baddeley and Hitch, who introduced the multicomponent model in 1974. In the first model it has three components; the central executive, the phonological circuit and the visuospatial notebook. The central executive is responsible for conveying information between other components and for controlling the center whatsoever. Phonological loop responsible for memorizing basic sounds and continuous repetition. Visuospatial sketchpad responsible for storing visual and spatial information, the spatial part is responsible for positions. They present this model as a “slave system,” the central executive as the supervisor and the other two components of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad as slaves. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay In 2000, Baddeley updated the model because it could not explain the outcome of various experiments and added the fourth component as an episodic buffer. The other model is working memory as part of long-term memory, this model was introduced by Ander Ericsson and Walter Kintchs who called "long-term working memory" and defined as "retrieval structures". In their model, working memory is not a separate system from long-term memory. Works Cited Baddeley, A.D. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Science, 4(11), 417-423. Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. Psychology of learning and motivation, 8, 47-89. Cowan, N. (2010). The magical mystery four: How is working memory capacity limited and why? Current Directions in Psychological Sciences, 19(1), 51-57. Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory,, 17(2), 107-117.