Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

This article briefly reviews and organizes research findings from the past few decades that focused on working memory and intelligence. Working memory is a psychological construct that focuses attention, and it is commonly viewed as a temporary storage that holds and manipulates information. Intelligence is a general cognitive ability associated with efficient higher-order thinking such as reasoning and problem solving skills. Decades of research ranging from empirical to brain-behavior studies have shown a strong link between working memory and intelligence, and researchers have begun to manipulate this relationship to further study the complex psychological construct of intelligence. Although the current active research in cognitive training has created much possibility in modifying the two cognitive abilities, there is still a long way to go in achieving thorough understanding of two important constructs in human cognition.