Working Memory

Working memory is the short-term bench you lay numbers, words, or instructions on while you think about them. It is one of the five factors the modern Stanford-Binet measures, and it is the single most state-dependent of the five — meaning it moves with sleep, stress, mood, exercise, and health.

What working memory is

Working memory is not the same as long-term memory. Long-term memory is where you keep your address, your childhood, the multiplication table. Working memory is where you hold the phone number you have just been told, while you find a pen to write it down. It is the active, brief, manipulable workspace.

Cognitive psychologists distinguish working memory from short-term memory: short-term memory is passive holding (“keep this string of digits in mind”), working memory is active manipulation (“keep this string of digits in mind and tell me them backwards”). The Stanford-Binet tests both, and combines them into a single Working Memory factor index.

How it is tested on the Stanford-Binet

On the SB5, working memory is tested verbally and nonverbally. Verbal items include digit-span tasks (repeat these numbers, then repeat them backwards), letter-number sequencing, and memory for sentences. Nonverbal items include block span (the examiner taps a sequence of blocks; you tap the same sequence back) and delayed-response tasks.

Our online assessment uses the same kinds of items, adapted for self-administration in a browser.

What a strong working-memory score predicts

Working memory is the most fundamental of the five factors in a particular sense: if your working memory is small, every problem feels harder than it should. You run out of bench space. People with attention disorders almost always show low working-memory scores; so do people who are sleep-deprived, stressed, or unwell on the day of the test.

Higher working memory is associated with better performance on multi-step problems, easier acquisition of complex instructions, and (in the modern era) noticeably better-than-average ability to handle interruption-heavy work. People with very high working memory often describe themselves as “good at juggling things in their head.”

Can working memory be improved?

Yes, more so than Innate Intelligence. The biggest movers are obvious and unglamorous: consistent sleep, regular aerobic exercise, treatment of any underlying attention or mood disorder, and avoiding the chronic mild dehydration most office workers live in. Working memory is the cognitive factor most responsive to lifestyle, and the one most worth re-testing if you have made meaningful changes since your last score.

Where to read more

• The five factors as a system: all five Stanford-Binet factors, side by side.
• The history of the test: Alfred Binet, the man behind the name.
• Take the test: what the assessment costs and what’s included.