Abstract: Some researchers suggested that internal working models of attachment as mental representations were similar in many ways to other cognitive structures. Social cognitive researches on adult attachment made a great progress that psychologists examined the core hypotheses of attachment theory and explored the attachment behavioral system’s unconscious content. Article compared the relationship between internal working model and mental representation, and summarized related memory and emotion being the content and function of internal working model. Additionally, researches on the availability, accessibility and prime effects as well as the future directions of attachments were illustrated and discussed

Key words: internal working model, attachment styles, mental presentation, prime effects, availability and accessibility, attributions