Working Memory: The Engine for Learning
IDA FACT SHEET
Approximately 10% of us have weak working memory; however, the estimates of the percentage of weak working memory in students with specific learning disorders, including dyslexia, ranges from 20 to 50 percent. Weak working memory is a core difficulty for students with ADHD, Inattentive Type.
Individuals with traumatic brain injury, deafness, oral language deficits or genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome are also more likely to have weak working memory. The purpose of this fact sheet is to describe the function of working memory, discuss the impact that weak working memory has on learning, and offer suggestions and resources for improving working memory and learning.
Types of Memory
Parents often report that their child has a “poor memory” and that poor memory is contributing to difficulties with learning; however, we don’t have just one global memory system. We have several different memory systems that hold different types of information. For example, episodic memory is the store for events in the relatively recent past, such as the birthday party we attended last weekend. Procedural memory is memory for skills and habits. We use procedural memory for riding a bike or driving a car. Semantic memory is the store of knowledge gained over our lifetime and includes information about word meanings, spellings, and pronunciations. We may have great variation in the capacity of these different memory systems. For example, it’s possible to have a very strong episodic memory but a weak semantic memory.
“Working memory” is crucial for learning and refers to the ability to hold and manipulate information mentally over short periods of time.
Working memory is a process and is different than rote memory, which involves passively memorizing static information. Working memory is a cognitive process and not a passive store of information. Working memory is what is needed when we must go beyond straight memorization and do something with the information.
Examples of everyday tasks that require working memory include:
- Listening to, remembering, and following directions that contain multiple steps
- Remembering a question long enough to think about it and formulate an answer
- Carrying out the steps to a recipe when no longer looking at the recipe
- Engaging in mental arithmetic
Working memory is limited both in capacity and duration. The average adult cannot hold more than six or seven bits of information in working memory. The duration of working memory is usually limited to a matter of seconds. Once information is lost from working memory, it cannot be retrieved. The student who “loses” some of the steps for directions delivered orally will not be able to retrieve the steps without repetition or some other form of assistance.
Weak Working Memory in the Classroom
A weak working memory can also have an impact on learning. Students with working memory constraints may
- perform below average in some or all areas of learning
- have difficulty with complex reasoning
- have trouble with tasks that have more than one step
- stop working because they have lost track of what they are supposed to do
- frequently engage in daydreaming
- lack skills in planning and organization
- have difficulty applying what they learned in a previous experience to a new situation
- have trouble remembering all the steps in oral directions
- have trouble thinking and doing at the same time
- appear highly distractible and inattentive but not impulsive or hyperactive
- demonstrate low self-esteem
- have relationships with peers but have difficulty following conversations in a group
Impact of Weak Working Memory on Reading and Written Language
A weak working memory can impede phonological learning and production at all levels. Consider a frequent rhyming exercise for young children. “Tell me which word rhymes with fox: truck, dog, box.”
To identify the two rhyming words, the child must hold and then compare all of the words in working memory (fox/truck, fox/dog, fox/box). When older children attempt to sound out new words, they must use their working memory to hold the entire sequence of sounds long enough to blend those sounds together.
Working memory is also key to
- linking to information held in long-term semantic memory stores to provide the meaning and pronunciation of words.
- holding and sequencing sounds for spelling and also for composing, holding, and connecting ideas in written text.
- reading comprehension and reading fluency. When reading a long sentence, paragraph or passage, working memory is what allows us to hold on to and integrate information we read early on with information that comes later. Students with strong decoding skills but weak working memories often comment that they “can’t remember anything!” from a page that they just read.
Impact of Weak Working Memory on Math
Children with math learning disorders have pervasive weaknesses across all working memory components. Young students with weak working memory make more errors when translating numbers from verbal to written form than do students with strong working memory. The most persistent weakness in children with math learning difficulties is the ability to store and retrieve number combinations and facts from long-term memory. As a result, working memory resources are not available for more complex aspects of mathematical processing. Math fluency is disrupted because a slow and unpredictable response time is the outcome of lack of automaticity in retrieval of basic math facts.
Helpful Approaches
Gaps in reading and spelling skills should be addressed directly. Weak working memory contributes to poor word decoding and encoding. Systematic synthetic multisensory phonic approaches are recommended for students with weak working memory.
For students with adequate decoding but low reading comprehension, direct training in strategies such as comprehension monitoring, knowledge and use of text structures, and use of linguistic context should be addressed. Students can also learn that it may be difficult to hold on to information when sentences are too long. Recognizing when sentences are too long is a cue to slow down, check for comprehension, and, if necessary, re-read.
Slow reading interferes with sentence/phrase comprehension. One strategy to address fluency is to model good fluency for the student by using proper intonation and chunking sentences into meaningful chunks. “Chunking” helps reduce the number of parts to be stored in working memory for immediate processing.
Students who struggle with math due to difficulty retrieving math facts should be allowed easy access to basic math facts. This approach allows the student to focus on higher level math reasoning without bogging down while trying to pull up information that is not automatic. In more advanced math, students may have trouble carrying out math processes that involve multiple steps. Such students may understand long division but make errors due to omitting some essential step. A ring with index cards that provide examples of worked problems that involved multiple steps can support memory and learning.
Classroom-based Support
Classroom-based supports are easy to use and can benefit all students, not just students with weak working memory! Such supports include the following:
- Monitoring the students for signs of poor working memory
- Reducing the amount of information to be stored (for example, providing information on a white board so students don’t have to hold the information in memory)
- Simplifying information to make it easier to process
- Teaching students how/when to apply memory aids
- Repeating information as often as needed
- Keeping directions simple and brief
- Providing worked examples
Working memory is essential for learning. While we do not yet have a way to change working memory per se, there are many things that parents and teachers can do to support learning and achievement in students who have weak working memories.
To Learn More
Understanding Working Memory – A Classroom guide by S. Gathercole & T Alloway
Videos
Over the last 15 years working memory experts Tracy and Ross Alloway have worked with students with ADHD, dyslexia and autistic spectrum disorders and found that there was a pattern – poor working memory underpinned poor learning outcomes. Each group has a specific area of working memory strength and weaknesses and when you know what it is you can provide targeted support to maximise learning. But what is working memory and why is it important in teaching and learning?
Check out these series of short videos as Tracy and Ross explain, along with some handy tips on how you can help improve students’ working memory!
What is Working and why is it important
Why is working memory particularly important for Special Educational Needs?