Work your memory, can you?

BRAIN TEASER : We need more than just a short-term or long-term memory pool to use our intelligence. Dr Pushpalatha Gurappa explains the working memory.

Ever wondered how sharp your memory is? Or how quickly your brain functions while you try and remember things?

In a hectic world, we often forget to ask these questions about ourselves although we may encounter many of them on a day-to-day basis. And we manage to sail through each day storing moments, thoughts, numbers, words with help from our memory capacity. 
 
It is interesting that although we may be able to remember a nearly infinite number of facts, only a handful of information can be brought into our consciousness and considered at any given moment. This temporary capacity is called a working memory.  The temporary nature of this capacity is the reason why a person might forget to buy an item or two on a mental grocery list, or why most people have difficulty adding together large numbers.

In fact, working memory could be the basis for general intelligence and reasoning — those who can hold many pieces of information in their mind may be well-equipped to consider different angles of a complex problem simultaneously. Formally speaking, working memory refers to a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for complex cognitive tasks such as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning. 

Working memory is involved in the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing functions such as encoding, storing, and data retreiving. It is the cognitive function responsible for keeping information online, manipulating it, and using it for thinking. Working memory guides the way we send signals to the parts of the brain that can take action. This way, working memory is necessary for staying focused on a task, blocking out distractions, and keeping one updated and aware of what’s going on around us. Working memory is different from other types of memory, such as short-term memory which does not require any manipulation of retained information. It is also different from long-term memory, which does not require any retention of the information beyond a few seconds.

Problems with working memory
Working memory comes into play in a wide range of learning activities. When a child’s memory capacity is low, academic performance is likely to be affected in multiple areas. An extensive body of research explains the relationship between working memory and intelligence, attention, problem-solving, planning, reading, behavioural problems, language skills and Math.

According to an estimate, 10-15 per cent of school-going children have working memory deficits. Teachers rarely identify memory as a source of difficulty in children with working memory problems, despite their poor classroom functioning.

Instead, children with memory problems are typically described as inattentive or unwilling to learn. Research reveals that many children and adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have working memory deficits.

Working memory problems tend to give rise to behavioural symptoms of ADHD such as distractibility, leading to poor academic performance and dropout. In the classroom, working memory constraints are indicated by a child having trouble waiting his/her turn, struggling with reading comprehension, mental calculations, initiating and completing a task; difficulties when planning and organising a task with multiple steps; restlessness and a sense of loss of belongingness with the class.

Whether working memory can be expanded through training, remains a topic of debate among psychologists. However, recent research indicates that working memory capacity can indeed be expanded with practice. Prof Torkel Klingberg and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, home of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, challenged the historically-held view of a fixed working memory capacity with their findings that this capacity can be increased with intensive training.  Klingberg developed a training programme called ‘Cogmed Working Memory Training’, initially launched in Sweden and later successfully validated in other countries around the world. Cogmed is a cognitive training programme administered via a computer, helping children and adults with attention problems focus better, leading to an improvement in working memory.

Cogmed training is focused, rigorous, and supported. Cogmed involves five weeks of computer-based training sessions, supervised by a trained coach. It consists of 25 training sessions, each lasting for 30-45 minutes. Cogmed can be used in schools, hospitals and private psychology/psychiatry clinics. It not only helps school children improve working memory capacity for academic performance but  individuals to be better equipped to meet everyday challenges. Such individuals could be born with a working memory constraint or acquire this constraint due to injury, disease or ageing.

(The author is Product Development Manager, Pearson Clinical Assessment)