Improve Working Memory
by Alan Pritt
For the uninitiated, working memory is our ability to consciously hold ideas in our heads and manipulate those ideas.
We use working memory for understanding language, solving problems, memorising information, developing new ideas, in fact pretty much everything that is not automatic. So something completely automated like walking does not use working memory, but learning something new like a dance move would.
The sophistication with which we can use our working memory dictates how easily we can understand complex things. The higher and more adaptable our working memory capacity, the easier it is to learn, to understand, to solve problems and create. It's a central component to our intelligence in a similar way a processor is to a computer.
How do you improve working memory?
A child's working memory is much less sophisticated than an adult's. While it is unclear whether a child's working memory naturally develops as a natural part of growing, it has been proven that various exercises can improve it.
Using working memory effectively involves really subtle responses to stimuli. You have to know how to concentrate on information, and how to organise it your consciousness. There are likely more factors involved, but learning how to organise incoming information is a fundamental part of improving working memory.
Although the exact nature of this subtle organising still needs to be researched, the good news is we can start training without knowing exactly what is going on. We are naturally good at filling in small gaps in understanding and can start to make progress through the simple process of just trying.
Health and Concentration
Lots of work still needs to be done concerning working memory, but one element that seems to be highly involved is concentration. Some even say working memory is our ability to concentrate, but that's probably taking it a bit far. However, concentration is certainly an intrinsic part of working memory. The worse your concentration is, the worse your working memory is.
All training for working memory will also involve training of concentration, but one important aspect that is not covered in this training is your health. Of course health is important for all aspects of brain functioning, but concentration is one of the first things to go if you don't look after yourself properly. So sleep well, eat well, reduce stress and exercise!
Reading
The text in magazines, on the Internet, and in much of modern fiction, tends to use simple sentences. These simple sentences make the material easier to read, but they don't challenge your reading ability.
Some fiction (especially older works and some fantasy and science fiction) use more complicated and longer sentence structures. This is more challenging for the reader, as it challenges working memory more.
Academic writings also tend to use more complicated sentence structures. These are less accessible to non-specialists as often the text is challenging for more reasons that complicated sentences. They tend to rely on you understanding jargon and having a lot of background knowledge. If you are trying to specialise in a certain area, it's a good idea to start reading this kind of material, but if not you may find a subject like philosophy more appropriate.
When you find a suitable text, read it and try to understand as much as possible. Long sentences may confuse and frustrate you, but try to stick with them and keep reading through until you gain a better understanding. On some texts this may take many trials, so keep persisting. The more difficult material you read, the easier it will get.
Maths
Maths is a less problematic suggestion than reading, because we can create complicated tasks without relying on lots of background knowledge.
As soon as you start working out ideas on paper you take all the challenge off working memory, so make sure you work everything out in your head.
Start with simple sums that contain only 1 or 2 digits (e.g. 7 x 8 or 57 - 34). When you find this easy add more digits to make it harder (e.g. 653 x 543 or 3243 + 5443). It doesn't take long to make this very hard. This exercise obviously has the added bonus of improving your basic maths skills.
Games like Soduko will also help, although it doesn't really involve any maths. But try to vary the tasks you give yourself.
Video Games
Video games are great for training a large number of mental skills. Working memory is being exercised when you have many different factors to think about at once. Basically you are looking for games that challenge you to keep track of many items at once. Many games are difficult because they require great hand/eye coordination. This alone won't do much for your working memory.
As an example, a 1st Person shooting game like Halo (image right) in single player mode won't train your working memory too hard. But multiplayer games will train it much more effectively because you have to keep track of so many people.
So basically you are looking for tactical challenges rather than skill based challenges.
Computer programs for training working memory
There are many working memory training programs on the Internet as well as games like Brain Age. To date I haven't had a chance to evaluate these properly, but most of them look good and are backed by at least preliminary scientific studies.
I believe their biggest weakness is found in their ability to transfer to tasks outside of the games. By incorporating some of the suggested activities above, this transfer rate should improve.
It's a good idea to find real world uses for working memory anyhow, as this will encourage you to make new habits which will make full use of your gains.
Automaticity
Automaticity occurs when we do a task enough times that we don't have to think about it. The typical example is driving a car. When you are a learner driver you have to think about when to use the mirror, where the indicator is, how to coordinate your feet with your hands when changing gear, what's happening on the road and so on. But the more your practice, the more automatic your driving becomes, until you can eventually drive without thinking about it.
Working memory problems are often the result of being burdened because we haven't learnt to do more basic stuff automatically. It's like trying to do your make up in the rear-view mirror while you're still learning to drive.
For example, some people have problems with basic processing of sounds. They may, for example, have difficulty understanding specific words and so need to spend time thinking what those words mean. This uses up working memory and makes it more difficult to understand the whole context of the sentence.
This is something I've noticed a lot with language learning. If I vaguely learn a new word, and then hear it in a sentence, I find myself concentrating on that word so much that I miss the rest of what is said. This caused a lot of problems for me in the beginning, but I found a way to remedy this problem. I simply slowed down, and went over all the material again and again until it became automatic.
Push the Boundaries
Whenever we persist at something we find difficult or confusing, we are doing ourselves some good. However pushing in different places will benefit us in different ways. To gain improvements in working memory you want to challenge yourself with something more complicated than what you are used to dealing with.
For instance, I find it really easy to grasp ideas in computers. I'm not really an expert because the field has moved on since I studied computing, but I know I can easily grasp new ideas. Simple computer operations, database systems, networks and basic programming are things I can deal with. I could spend the next ten years learning about new technologies, but this wouldn't have improved my working memory. But if I was to move into more involved programming, possibly working with 3D engines or developing operating systems, I would be challenging my working memory to a higher degree.
You can usually tell the difference because you will find some things easy to learn, while other things will be more frustrating and take more time to grasp. To improve working memory, look for those more difficult items and try to stretch beyond them.
