People-focused knowledge management

Medium-Term Buffer Memory
“Buffer memory” plays the role of a medium-term memory where
we store a large number of mental objects that we work with right
now, or have worked with during the last several hours. Mental
objects stored in the buffer memory are easily accessed by working
memory. At the same time, they are also easily forgotten. We all can
relate to the store manager’s statement about two customers who just
left that “I know they were in here before and that they looked at
the jacket they just bought. But I cannot remember if it was last night
or this morning.”
On the way to becoming transferred to long-term memory, the
mental objects we create from received information may be retained
temporarily in buffer memory where they reside for some time after
working memory has forgotten (or released) them. The notion of
“buffer” or “medium-term” memory is not uniformly accepted but
is required to explain human professional work functions. It has no
known physiological basis but explains the intermediate state of
memorization. Retrieving memory objects from buffer memory is
easier and quicker than obtaining them from long-term memory.
After some hours, the mental objects in this intermediate memory are
typically no longer available but must be retrieved from long-term
memory if we want access to them again.
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People-Focused Knowledge Management
People retain mental objects stored in their buffer memory differ-
ently. Some may remember facts accurately but cannot remember
what was said or how statements were phrased; others remember
verbal statements precisely but cannot remember facts per se; and
still others remember neither facts nor verbal statements but know
what the underlying concepts were on a much broader basis than the
other two groups. This variability is worth remembering when we
work with what our coworkers know and how they obtain and use
new knowledge.