Working Memory
Understanding Working Memory
A Classroom Guide
Professor Susan E. Gathercole & Dr Tracy Packiam Alloway
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Copyright © 2007 by S. E. Gathercole and T. P. Alloway All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Harcourt Assessment, Procter House, 1 Procter Street, London WC1V 6EU. Typeset and printed in the United Kingdom. 07 08 09 10 A B C D Visit our website http://psychology.dur.ac.uk/research/wm/index.htm
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This booklet provides an introduction to working memory and the role it plays in everyday life, especially in supporting learning in school. The learning difficulties commonly faced by children with very poor working memory skills are described, and are illustrated with case studies. A programme of classroom support for children with working memory problems is outlined.
What is working memory?
Psychologists use the term ‘working memory’ to describe the ability we have to hold in mind and mentally manipulate information over short periods of time. Working memory is often thought of as a mental workspace that we can use to store important information in the course of our mental activities. A good example of an activity that uses working memory is mental arithmetic. Imagine, for example, attempting to multiply 43 and 27 together, and spoken to you by another person, without being able to use a pen and paper or a calculator. First of all, you would need to hold the two numbers in working memory. The next step would be to use learned multiplication rules to calculate the products of successive pairs of numbers, adding to working memory the new products as you proceed. Finally, you would need to add together the products held in working memory, resulting in the correct solution. Without working memory we would
A Classroom Guide
Professor Susan E. Gathercole & Dr Tracy Packiam Alloway
??
Copyright © 2007 by S. E. Gathercole and T. P. Alloway All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Harcourt Assessment, Procter House, 1 Procter Street, London WC1V 6EU. Typeset and printed in the United Kingdom. 07 08 09 10 A B C D Visit our website http://psychology.dur.ac.uk/research/wm/index.htm
2
?
This booklet provides an introduction to working memory and the role it plays in everyday life, especially in supporting learning in school. The learning difficulties commonly faced by children with very poor working memory skills are described, and are illustrated with case studies. A programme of classroom support for children with working memory problems is outlined.
What is working memory?
Psychologists use the term ‘working memory’ to describe the ability we have to hold in mind and mentally manipulate information over short periods of time. Working memory is often thought of as a mental workspace that we can use to store important information in the course of our mental activities. A good example of an activity that uses working memory is mental arithmetic. Imagine, for example, attempting to multiply 43 and 27 together, and spoken to you by another person, without being able to use a pen and paper or a calculator. First of all, you would need to hold the two numbers in working memory. The next step would be to use learned multiplication rules to calculate the products of successive pairs of numbers, adding to working memory the new products as you proceed. Finally, you would need to add together the products held in working memory, resulting in the correct solution. Without working memory we would