Working Memory Booklet

8/17/2019 Working Memory Booklet

1/15

Understanding Working Memory:

A Classroom Guide

Professor Susan E. Gathercole

&

r !racy Packiam Allo"ay

!his #ooklet $ro%ides an introduction to

"hat "orking memory is and e'$lains

its im$ortance in su$$orting children(s

learning in the classroom. !he learning

di)iculties faced #y children "ith %ery

$oor "orking memory skills are

descri#ed illustrated a case study. Ways

of $ro%iding classroom su$$ort for

children "ith "orking memory

$ro#lems are discussed.

Working memory *


2/15

What is +"orking memory(,

Psychologists use the term ‘working memory’ to referto the ability we have to hold and manipulateinformation in the mind over short periods of time.Working memory is a kind of mental workspace thatis used to store important information in the course of our everyday lives.

A good example of an activity that uses workingmemory is mental arithmetic. Imagine for exampleattempting to multiply together two numbers !e.g.

- /01 spoken to you by another person without

being able to use a pen and paper or a calculator.

"irst of all you would need to hold the two numbersin working memory. #he next step would be to uselearned multiplication rules to calculate the productsof successive pairs of numbers adding to workingmemory the new products as you proceed. "inally

you would need to add together the products held inworking memory resulting in the correct solution.Without working memory we would not be able to

carry out this kind of complex mental activity inwhich we have to both keep in mind some informationwhile processing other material.

Working memory /


3/15

Are there limits to "orking memory,

$es. It is unfortunately true that working memory islimited in a number of ways and can easily fail uswhen we need it. %ere are some of the situations thatlead to the loss of the contents of working memory.

• istraction. An unrelated thought springing tomind or an interruption by someone else are oftensu&icient to erase the contents of working memory.

• !rying to hold in mind too much information.#here is a limit to how much information can beheld in working memory. "or example trying to

multiply the numbers 02 and 32* would be likelyto result in failure simply because the amount ofinformation that has to be stored in the course ofthe calculation exceeds the capacity of mostpeople’s working memory.

• Engaging in a demanding task. Activities thatre'uire di&icult processing !such as mentalarithmetic( use up storage space in workingmemory and so can result in a loss of other

information already held there.

Working memory


4/15

What ha$$ens to information "hen it islost from "orking memory,

)nce information has been lost from working memoryit is gone for ever* When this situation arises it isnecessary to start again the process of enteringinformation into working memory. In mentalarithmetic for example the sum would have to be re+calculated from the beginning.

oes "orking memory ca$acity %ary #et"een $eo$le,

$es there is a personal limit to working memory,each individual has a relatively -xed capacity thatmay be greater or lesser than that of others. o aparticular mental activity may be within the workingmemory capacity of one person but exceed that ofanother.

Working memory capacity also increases with age

during childhood. $oung children typically have verysmall capacities that increase gradually until theteenage years when adult levels are reached!approximately / to 0 times greater than that of 1+

year old children(. #his is illustrated in the -gure.

2hanges in working memory capacity with age

!y$ical scores of children are re$resented #y theun#roken line. Scores of children "ith $oor "orkingmemory ca$acities are re$resented #y the dottedline.

3i&erences in working memory capacity between young children can be very large indeed. It istypically the case that individuals who have poorworking memory capacities in childhood do not catch

Working memory -

1 yrs

44 yrs

45 yrs

W

6

c a p a c

i t

y


5/15

up with those of other average children even by theend of childhood as shown by the dotted line in the-gure.

Working memory 4


6/15

Can "orking memory ca$acity #emeasured,

7asily* ome simple tests have been developed thatreliably measure the capacity of working memory.#hese are suitable for use with children as young as 1

years of age. and typically involve attempting to bothstore and manipulate informtion in mind over briefperiods for time.

Individual tests take no longer than 5 minutes toadminister and can be given either in paper andpencil form using the Working Memory !est 5attery

for Children !suitable for ages 1 to 45( or using a

simple P2+based programme that we have developedthe Automated Working Memory Assessment ! AWMA1 to 44 years(. #he AW6A is designed for easyadministration for classroom teachers + test scoresare calculated automatically by the computerprogramme and the child’s pro-le is generatedautomatically on completion + and re'uires minimaltraining for administration and interpretation.

#he Working Memory !est 5attery for Children can

be purchased from test distributors Psychological2orporation.

#he AWMA is available on re'uest from 3r Alloway3epartment of Psychology 8niversity of 3urhamouth 9oad 3urham 3%4 0:7 emailt.p.alloway;durham.ac.uk.

Working memory 6


7/15

Characteristics of children "ith $oor "orking memory ca$acities

Working memory impairments often go undetected inchildren and cannot be identi-ed une'uivocallywithout proper testing. %owever here are somecharacteristics that are warning signs of workingmemory impairments. #he children typically<

• are well+ad=usted socially

• are reserved in group activities in theclassroom rarely volunteering answers andsometimes not answering direct 'uestions

• behave as though they have not paid attention

for example forgetting part or all of instructionsor messages

• fre'uently lose their place in complicated taskswhich they may eventually abandon

• forget the content of messages and instructions

• are rated by their teachers at school entry ashaving relatively low foundation skills in areassuch as reading language speaking andlistening and mathematics

• show poor academic progress particularly in

literacy and mathematics and• have low levels of attainments at >ey tages 4

to 0 in 7nglish mathematics and science.

Interestingly poor working memory capacities arenot associated with inade'uacies in pre+schoolexperiences or education or with the 'uality of socialor intellectual stimulation in the home. In this and inother respects working memory di&ers from other

more general measures of ability such as I?.

Working memory 0


8/15

Working memory and learningdi)iculties

#he ma=ority of children with learning di&iculties in

either language !including literacy( or in bothliteracy and mathematics have impairments ofworking memory of a degree of severity that arerare in children with no special educational needs.

2hildren with special needs in other areas that arenot directly related to learning such as disordersof attention or emotional and behaviouraldisturbances typically do not have impairments of working memory.

Why is "orking memory crucial forlearning,

Working memory 3


9/15

Working memory is important because it provides amental workspace in which we can holdinformation whilst mentally engaged in otherrelevant activities. #he capacity to do this iscrucial to many learning activities in the

classroom. 2hildren often have to holdinformation in mind whilst engaged in an e&ortfulactivity. #he information to be remembered mayfor example be the sentence that they intend towrite while trying to spell the individual words. Itcould also be the list of instructions given by theteacher while carrying out individual steps in thetask.

2hildren with small working memory capacities willstruggle in these activities simply because theyare unable to hold in mind su&icient informationto allow them to complete the task. :osing crucialinformation from working memory will causethem to forget many things< instructions they areattempting to follow the details of what they aredoing where they have got to in a complicatedtask and so on.

@ecause children with small working memorycapacity fail in many di&erent activities on manyoccasions due to these kinds of forgetting theywill struggle to achieve normal rates of learningand so typically will make poor general academic

progress. "or this reason we describe workingmemory as a ‘bottleneck’ for learning< withoutsu&icient working memory capacity the individualclassroom activities will have to be carefullydesigned by the teacher in order to build upknowledge and skills across time to encouragee&ective learning.

Working memory 2


10/15

A case study of "orking memory im$airment

athan was a B+year old boy with an impairment of

working memory. %is nonverbal I? was in the normalrange. %e was a 'uiet child who was well+behaved inthe classroom and was relatively popular with hispeers. %e had been placed in the lowest abilitygroups in both literacy and numeracy. %is teacher feltthat he often failed to listen to what she said to himand that he was often Cin a world of his ownD.

In class athan often struggled with keep up withclassroom activities. "or example when the teacherwrote on the board 6onday 44th ovember andunderneath #he 6arket which was the title of thepiece of work he lost his place in the laboriousattempt to copy the words down letter by letterwriting moemarket. It appeared that he had begunto write the date forgot what he was doing andbegan writing the title instead. %e also fre'uentlyfailed to complete structured learning activities. Inone instance when his teacher handed athan hiscomputer login cards and told him to go and work onthe computer numbered 40 he failed to do this

because he had forgotten the number. )n anotheroccasion athan was encouraged to use a numberline when counting the number of ducks shown ontwo cards but struggled to coordinate the act of

=umping along the line with counting up to the secondnumber. %e abandoned the attempt solving the sum

instead by counting up the total number of ducks onthe two cards.

athan also struggled with tasks that imposedsigni-cant processing demands in con=unction with

the storage of multiple items. "or example whenasked to identify two rhyming words in a four+linetext read aloud by the teacher athan was unable tomatch the sound structures of the pair of words storethem and then recall them when the teacher -nishedreading the text.

Classroom su$$ort for children "ith"orking memory im$airments

Ways of improving working memory capacity directlyhave not yet been developed. evertheless there isplenty that can be done to enhance learning inchildren with impairments of working memory. #heapproach that we recommend involves e&ectivemanagement by teachers of children’s workingmemory loads in the classroom with the aim ofalleviating the disruptive conse'uences on learning of excessive working memory loads.

#he following recommendations should be used toguide both the development of lesson plans forchildren with working memory impairments and themonitoring of children’s performance in class. In eachcase the aim is to minimiEe the chances that the

Working memory *7


11/15

child will fail to complete the intended learningactivity successfully due to working memory failures.

A summary of working memory problems andsolutions is provided in #able 4.

1: Recognise working memory failuresWorking memory failures typically manifestthemselves in fre'uent errors of the following kinds<

• incomplete recall such as forgetting some or all of the words in a sentence or of a se'uence ofwords,

• failing to follow instructions includingremembering only the part of a se'uence ofinstructions or forgetting the content of aninstruction !for example the child correctly

remembers to go to 6rs mith’s classroom asinstructed by the teacher but once there cannotremember the content of the message to be given(,

• place+keeping errors F for example repeating andGor skipping letters and words during sentencewriting missing out large chunks of a task,

• task abandonment F the child gives up a taskcompletely.

If these types of activity failure are observed it isrecommended that the working memory demands ofthe task are considered !see /( and if believed to beexcessive the activity should be repeated withreduced working memory loads !see 0(.

2: Evaluate the working demands of learningactivities

Activities that impose heavy storage demandstypically involve the retention of signi-cant amountsof verbal material with a relatively arbitrary content.

%ere are some examples of activities with workingmemory demands that are likely to exceed thecapacities of a child with working memory de-cits<

• remembering se'uences of three or more numbersor unrelated words !e.g. 4 2 / 6 or cat lionkangaroo(,

• remembering and successfully following lengthyinstructions !e.g. Put your sheets on the greenta#le arro" cards in the $acket $ut your $encila"ay and come and sit on the car$et(,

•

remembering lengthy sentences containing somearbitrary content to be written down !e.g. !o#lo" u$ $arliament Guy 8a"kes had 6 #arrels ofgun$o"der (

• keeping track of place reached in the course ofmulti+level tasks !e.g. writing a sentence downeither from memory or from the white board(

3: Reduce working memory loads if necessary In order to avoid working memory+related failures!see 4( working memory loads in structured activitiesshould be decreased. #his can be achieved in anumber of ways including<

Working memory **


12/15

• reducing the overall amount of material to bestored !e.g. shortening sentences to be written ornumber of items to be remembered(

• increasing the meaningfulness and degree offamiliarity of the material to be remembered

• simplifying the linguistic structures of verbalmaterial !e.g. using simple active constructionsrather than passive forms with embedded clausesin activities involving remembering sentences andin instructions(

• reducing processing demands !see 1 below(

• re+structuring multi+step tasks into separateindependent steps supported by memory aids ifpossible

• making available and encouraging the use of

memory aids !e.g. making available ‘usefulspellings’ on white boards and cards andproviding number lines(.

4: Be aware that processing demands increase working memory loads Although children may be capable of storing aparticular amount of information in one situation ademanding concurrent processing task will increaseworking memory demands and so may lead to

memory failure as illustrated in the two examplesbelow of children with working memory de-cits.

Example 1

#he children in athan’s class were asked to identifythe rhyming words in a text read aloud by the

teacher. #hey had to wait until all four lines had beenread before telling the teacher the two words thatrhymed< tie and 9y . #his task involves matching thesound structures of a pair of words and storing them.athan was unable to do this although he was able

to remember two words under conditions where noconcurrent processing was re'uired.

Example 2

An activity in Hay’s class involved the teacher writingnumber se'uences on the white board with somenumbers missing. he counted the numbers aloud asshe wrote them and asked the class what numbersshe had missed out. In each case there was morethan one number missing !e.g. 7 * / - 4 0 3(. Inthis activity the child has to use their numberknowledge to identify each missing number and storethem. )n all occasions Hay was unable to identify themissing numbers.

In such cases steps should be taken to modify thelearning activity in order to reduce working memoryloads !see 0(.

5: re!uently repeat important informationIt is good practice when working with children with

working memory de-cits to repeat regularlyinformation that is crucial to ongoing activities. #hiswill include<

• general classroom management instructions

Working memory */


13/15

• task+speci-c instructions !what the whole activityconsists of broken down into simple steps(

• detailed content intrinsic to an activity !forexample the particular sentence to be written(

2hildren should also be encouraged to re'uest

repetition of important information in cases offorgetting.

": #onitor the child

It is important to monitor the child’s working memoryregularly in the course of demanding activities. #hiswill include<

•

looking for warning signs of memory overload!see 4( and

• ask the child directly F for example ask fordetails of s’he is doing and intends to do next

In cases when the child has forgotten crucialinformation<

• repeat information as re'uired

• break down tasks and instructions into smallercomponents to minimiEe memory load

• encourage the child to re'uest informationwhen re'uired.

$: Encourage the use of memory aids

A variety of tools that support memory are in commonuse in classrooms F these include number lines 8ni-xblocks and other counting devices cards andpersonaliEed dictionaries with useful spellingsteacher notes on the class white board and wall

charts. #hese tools can help in several di&erent waysto reduce working memory loads F they may reducethe processing demands of the activity !e.g. usefulspellings and 8ni-x blocks( and they may alsoreduce the storage load of the task and so help thechild keep their place !e.g. number lines(.

It should however be noted that children withworking memory de-cits are often unwilling to usesuch tools spontaneously possibly because of theinitial cost of mastering the new skill. It is thereforerecommended that children are given practice in theuse of memory aids in situations with minimalworking memory demands in order to establishmastery of the basic skill before their use in morecomplex activities with higher working memory loads.%: &evelop the child's use of memory(relievingstrategies2hildren with working memory de-cits are typicallyaware of when they have forgotten crucialinformation but often do not know what to do in such

situations. An important role for the teacher is toencourage the child to develop strategies forovercoming memory problems. #hese will include<

• use of rehearsal to maintain importantinformation

Working memory *


14/15

• use of memory aids !see (

• organiEational strategies F breaking tasks downinto component parts where possible

• asking for help when important information hasbeen forgotten.

!a#le *: E)ecti%e management of "orkingmemory loads in the classroom: Some$ro#lems and solutions

Working memory *-

Problem olutions2hild forgetsthe task

• Jive brief and simpleinstructions broken downinto separate steps if task is

very complex

• 2heck the child canremember the instructions.

9epeat instructions ifnecessary

2hild cannotmeet combinedprocessing andstoragedemands ofactivities

• "or activities involvingsentences reduce sentencelength reduce syntacticcomplexity !simple activesentence forms are theeasiest( andG or increasefamiliarity of the vocabulary

2hild loses place

in a complextask

• 8se external memory aids

such as number lines anduseful spellings.

• 7nsure that the child hasplenty of prior practice in theuse of the aids before usingthem in more complex tasksettings

• "ind ways of marking for thechild their progress in acomplex task structure


15/15

A#out the authors

usan Jathercole is a psychologist with over /K yearsof experience in research on memory duringchildhood. he has written many articles forpsychologists and teachers is a founding co+editorof the =ournal 6emory and has developed severalstandardised tests of memory for children. usanis a Professor of Psychology at the 8niversity of3urham.

#racy Packiam Alloway is a research psychologist inthe 3epartment of Psychology at the 8niversity of

3urham. he has worked with educationalpsychologists and teachers in her research onworking memory and learning.

If you would like further information regarding issuesrelated to working memory in the classroomplease contact us as at<s.e.gathercole;durham.ac.uk ort.p.alloway;durham.ac.uk . "or our websitewhich contains up+to+date information on ourresearch please click on<

www.

#he preparation of this booklet was supported by the6edical 9esearch 2ouncil and the 7conomic andocial 9esearch 2ouncil.

Working memory *4
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Working Memory Booklet