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Working Memory Patterns(WMP)
Short-term context management for active cognitive processing
In 30 seconds
- What
- Maintains a limited set of active facts and goals during problem-solving, discarding or archiving lower-priority items as capacity fills.
- When to use
- Multi-step tasks where the agent must track intermediate results, current goals, and constraints without re-reading the full context each step.
- Watch out
- Agents often retain too much or the wrong information, causing later steps to reference stale data or lose critical constraints.
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Working Memory Patterns: Overview
Short-term context management for active cognitive processing
- Limited capacity management
- Active information maintenance
- Priority-based retention
- Real-time context updates
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References
The papers, specifications, and repositories this pattern is based on.
- Working Memory: Theories, Models, and Controversies (Baddeley, 2012)
- The Magic Number 4 in Short-term Memory: A Reconsideration (Cowan, 2001)
- Working Memory Capacity: An Individual Differences Approach (Conway et al., 2005)
- Executive Functions and Working Memory (Miyake & Friedman, 2012)
- ACT-R: A Cognitive Architecture for Working Memory (Anderson, 2007)
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