Working memory has nothing to do with intelligence or effort. It’s merely a deficit of our executive functions
Shira is ready to get started with Shabbos preparation. Bursting with energy, she enters the kitchen, but her mind suddenly goes blank. She mentally rehashes what she was planning to do, but comes up empty.
Blimi wants to prepare her guest room. As she starts making the beds, she realizes she forgot the pillowcases, only to get them and realize she took the wrong set. She goes up and down four times by the time the room is finally ready.
Devorah’s stomach turns to knots as she walks toward the coworker who has introduced herself multiple times, but whose name she cannot remember.
What these women may be struggling with is deficits in their working memory. Working memory is one of our executive functions. It’s our ability to hold information temporarily in our heads while we use it for a short period of time. We use our working memory for things like remembering a phone number while searching for a pen, gathering all the items necessary for a task, or keeping a short list of groceries in our head during a spontaneous shopping trip.
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