How to Use working memory in a Sentence

working memory

noun
Definition of working memorynext
  • The problem with opening a lot of tabs is that each one uses a chunk of your working memory.
    — Ken Colburn, The Arizona Republic, 6 July 2021
  • Aside from time, the other thing that kills working memory is distractions.
    — Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 23 Dec. 2023
  • The average human only has the working memory to focus on four things at once.
    — Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 18 July 2023
  • His group has tried, without success, to evoke eye movements in one macaque and to impair working memory function in another.
    — Kelly Servick, Science | AAAS, 28 Oct. 2020
  • As people get older, their working memory—the ability to hold something in mind, like a phone number—worsens.
    — WIRED, 3 July 2023
  • People can hold only a certain number of objects in their awareness, or working memory, at one time.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 9 Nov. 2023
  • The visual working memory area of the brain, which is lodged in the prefrontal cortex region above the forehead, is definitely involved, Pexman said.
    — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 8 Mar. 2022
  • At this scale, a supercomputer would likely need terabytes of working memory just to store the model.
    — Jim Salter, Ars Technica, 13 Dec. 2019
  • Just take a few minutes to do it: The act can actually lower inflammation markers in your body and boost your working memory.
    — Marty Munson, Men's Health, 16 Aug. 2023
  • But their lack of a neocortex—the area of the mammalian brain where working memory, planning, and problem solving happen—has long puzzled scientists.
    — Virginia Morell, Science | AAAS, 24 Sep. 2020
  • Studies have linked dark chocolate, which is high in antioxidant compounds known as flavanoids, to improvements in working memory and better blood flow to the brain.
    — Samantha Cassetty, NBC News, 22 Nov. 2019
  • The cubes were limited by the size of their microprocessors, which could store only 32 kilobytes of software code and had only two kilobytes of working memory.
    — Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American, 5 Apr. 2012
  • Eight bits make a byte; the active working memory of a typical smartphone might employ something like 2 gigabytes, or two times 8 billion bits.
    — Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2019
  • Conveniently, working memory can be measured at two years of age.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 12 Apr. 2018
  • As a result, the feedback fails and the overloaded working memory system collapses.
    — Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, 9 June 2018
  • People have better working memory if, in their native language, meanings remain, until the end of the sentence, unclear.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's magazine, 10 Apr. 2019
  • The study also found that the intervention was capable of boosting both working memory and long-term memory.
    — Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC News, 22 Aug. 2022
  • Just focusing on a shortcoming means keeping things simple for the working memory.
    — Fortune, 30 Dec. 2021
  • This aligns with the idea that anxiety, or feelings of tension, can often pose a negative influence on working memory.
    — Tree Meinch, Discover Magazine, 10 Mar. 2022
  • That timeline could be of use not just to episodic memory in the hippocampus, but to working memory in the prefrontal cortex and conditioning responses in the striatum.
    — Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, 17 Feb. 2019
  • Dubal’s research team tested the working memory capacity of 18 rhesus macaques, whose ages were about equivalent to 65 in human years.
    — WIRED, 3 July 2023
  • The effect was most pronounced for Black and Latinx children, who developed a better working memory if their teacher was also Black or Latinx.
    — Nick Morrison, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2023
  • These outcomes may stem from the fact that frequent phone interruptions increase our cognitive load, or the amount of information processed by the working memory.
    — Molly Glick, Discover Magazine, 29 Apr. 2022
  • In every case, the frontal cortex, which plays a key role in cognitive control, working memory, attention, and emotional reactions, came alive on the fMRI screen.
    — Rebecca Renner, National Geographic, 4 Aug. 2020
  • Your working memory can only hold a limited number of bits of information at any given time.
    — Amina Youssef-Shalala, Quartz, 12 Oct. 2019
  • Now researchers have found that stimulating the brain with weak electrical currents can restore working memory in older adults.
    — Roni Dengler, Discover Magazine, 8 Apr. 2019
  • Speaking is perhaps a baby's most important milestone and is tied to later cognition and working memory.
    — Erik Vance, Scientific American, 15 May 2018
  • Another study found that a walk can not only decrease your anxiety but also boost your working memory performance.
    — David O'Hara, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2023
  • All participants given training beforehand did better on the task that tested their working memory, which is the small amount of information that can be held in your brain to execute tasks at hand, according to the study.
    — Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 5 Sep. 2022
  • Sometimes the number of squares fell below their working memory capacity, sometimes above.
    — Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, 9 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'working memory.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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