Working memory is the part of our mind that provides our consciousness. It is the vehicle which enables us to think (both logically and creatively), to solve problems and to be expressive.

Working memory is intimately related to where and how we direct our attention to "think about something", or to process information.

The biggest limitation of working memory is its capacity to deal with no more than about seven (plus or minus two) elements of information simultaneously (Miller, 1956).

If the capacity of working memory is exceeded while processing a body of information then some, if not all, of that information will be lost.

Consider answering both of the following questions without using pencil and paper.

For most people Question 1 is quick and easy to solve as an example of mental arithmetic.

In many ways Question 2 is nothing more than a 'larger' version of Question 1, yet for most people it is almost impossible to solve mentally.

The role of long term memory is effectively the same for each of these two questions; to recognise the numerals and to recall the rules of addition.

The difference is that in Question 2 our working memory capacity is exceeded. It cannot cope with the large number of elements (in this case the numerals) that need to be attended to simultaneously in order to solve this problem.

The use of pen and paper aids solution to Question 2 because it effectively relieves the burden placed upon working memory by giving us a means of recording elements in a 'permanent' form once we have finished processing them.

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