Obsessed with Working Memory, Part II

In the first post of the series , we looked at the definition of working memory. Simply put, it allows brains to SHREK. That is: Select, Hold, REorganize, Kombine This post considers three core ideas that we need to remember about WM. 1: Working Memory is CRUCIAL to Learning “No academic information gets into long-term memory except through working memory.” Simply put, students have to use WM to learn almost anything. When students try to balance chemistry equations, they use WM. When they sound out new words: WM. When they compare Inca and Maya religions: WM. When they transpose a song into a new key: yup, WM. It is, in fact, hard to think of much that students do with low WM demands. For instance, when they sing “Happy Birthday,” that’s not much of a working memory task. After all, “Happy Birthday” is in almost everyone’s long-term memory. Of course, if you’ve forgotten the name of the person whose birthday it is, you might feel your WM scramble when you sing: “Happy Birthday dear Hmm-Hmm, Happy Birthday to you.” 2: Working Memory is LIMITED In the first post in this series, I asked you to alphabetize five days of the week. You could probably do that quite easily. If, however, I asked you to alphabetize 10 months of the year, you would — almost certainly — crash before you got there. (Go ahead, try it. See what I mean?) We have enough WM for five, but not enough for ten. People experience WM overload frequently. For instance: driving to an unfamiliar location requires lots of WM. Exploring a new program on your computer. Following a multi-step recipe. Solving the problem in this video . Let’s pause for a moment and put #1 and #2 together. Working memory is both […]

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