{"id":6575,"date":"2022-05-02T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6575"},"modified":"2022-05-02T09:03:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T14:03:03","slug":"working-memory-make-it-bigger-or-use-it-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/working-memory-make-it-bigger-or-use-it-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Memory: Make it Bigger, or Use it Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cognitive science has LOTS of good news<\/strong> for teachers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Can we help students remember<\/em> ideas and skills better?<\/p>\n

Yes, we can! (Check out retrieval practice and other desirable difficulties<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Can we promote students\u2019 attention?<\/p>\n

Yes, we can! (Posner and Rothbart\u2019s \u201ctripartite\u201d theory gives us lots of guidance.)<\/p>\n

Can we foster motivation<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Yes, we can! (As long as we\u2019re modest about expectations and honest about the research, growth mindset can help<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

At the same time, we\u2019ve occasionally got bad news<\/strong> as well.<\/p>\n

Do cell phones distract students from their work?<\/p>\n

Yes, they do! (Even when they\u2019re turned off<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Do students have \u201clearning styles\u201d?<\/p>\n

Not in any meaningful way, no<\/a>. (As Daniel Willingham says: when it comes to learning, people are more alike than different.)<\/p>\n

The WORST News<\/h2>\n

I regularly talk with teachers and school leaders about working memory<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After a definition and some fun exercises, I emphasize three key points:<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: working memory is ESSENTIAL for learning. No academic information gets into long-term memory except through working memory. (Really.)<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: it\u2019s sadly LIMITED. (You probably can<\/em> alphabetize 5 random words. You probably can\u2019t<\/em> alphabetize 10. You\u2019ve run out of WM.)<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>: we know of no artificial way of making it bigger \u2026 except for letting children grow up. (WM capacity increases as we age, until our early twenties. No, you don\u2019t want to know what happens next.)<\/p>\n

This third point consistently creates genuine consternation.<\/p>\n

Because: we REALLY want to make working memory bigger. After all: it\u2019s essential, and it\u2019s limited.<\/p>\n

And because: almost every other cognitive function CAN get bigger.<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more Spanish, practice Spanish. You\u2019ll learn more.<\/p>\n

If you want to get better at meditation, practice meditation; you\u2019ll get better.<\/p>\n

If you want to increase your working memory \u2013 and, trust me, you do \u2013 common sense suggests that practice should help<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is: if you keep doing working memory exercises, your working memory should improve.<\/p>\n

And yet, weirdly, it just doesn\u2019t<\/em>. People have tried and tried. Some companies make big claims.<\/p>\n

Alas, we just don\u2019t have consistent, robust research<\/a> suggesting that any of these strategies work.<\/p>\n

So, as I say, that\u2019s really bad news.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Panic: There’s REALLY Good News<\/h2>\n

After all that bad news, it\u2019s time for some good news. Let me start with an analogy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 5\u201910\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m never the first pick for anyone\u2019s basketball team. And: no matter how much I try, I\u2019ll never get any taller<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However \u2013 and this is the key point \u2013 I can use the height I have more effectively<\/em>. If I learn how to play basketball well (at my height), I can be a better player.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not taller<\/em>; my \u201cheight capacity\u201d hasn\u2019t changed. But my use of that height can improve.<\/p>\n

So too, teachers can help students use the working memory they have<\/em> more effectively.<\/p>\n

In fact, we have LOTS of strategies for helping teachers do so. We have so many strategies that someone should write a book about them. (It\u2019s possible I already did.)<\/p>\n

For instance: \u201cdual coding<\/em>\u201d doesn\u2019t increase students\u2019 WM capacity. It does, however, allow them to use more of the WM that they already have.<\/p>\n

For that reason, dual coding \u2013 used correctly \u2013 can help students learn.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Stop Now<\/h2>\n

The good news keeps going.<\/p>\n

Like dual coding, relevant knowledge in long-term memory<\/em> reduces WM demands. The precise reasons get complicated, but the message is clear: students who know more can \u2013 on average \u2013 think more effectively.*<\/p>\n

For that reason, a well-structured curriculum can help students learn. The knowledge they acquire along the way transforms WM-threatening tasks into WM-friendly tasks.<\/p>\n

In many cases, simple common sense can manage WM load.<\/p>\n

Once teachers understand why instructions<\/em> take up WM space, we know how to dole out instructions more effectively.<\/p>\n

Once we see why choices<\/em> both motivate students\u2019 interest and stress students\u2019 WM, we can seek out the right number of choices.<\/p>\n

So too, once we focus on \u201cthe curse of knowledge<\/em>,\u201d we start to recognize all the ways our own expertise can result in WM overload. This perspective powerfully reshapes lesson plans.<\/p>\n

In other words: when teachers understand WM, we begin \u2013 naturally and intuitively \u2013 to adjust classroom demands to fit within cognitive limits.<\/p>\n

That process takes time, with stumbles and muddles along the way. But the more we practice, the more skillful and successful we become.<\/p>\n

And, notice this key point: none of these strategies\u00a0make WM bigger<\/em>. Instead, they help students\u00a0use it better<\/em>.<\/p>\n

TL; DR<\/h2>\n

Although working memory is VITAL for learning, students (and adults) don\u2019t have very much.<\/p>\n

We therefore WANT to make it bigger.<\/p>\n

The good news is: although we really can\u2019t<\/strong> make it bigger, we really can<\/strong> help students use it more effectively.<\/p>\n

When we shift our focus from making it bigger <\/em>to using it better<\/em>, we adopt teaching strategies that help students learn.<\/p>\n

\n

* For this reason, cognitive scientists get very antsy when they hear the claim that “students don’t need to know facts because they can look them up on the interwebs.” Because of working memory limits, students must have knowledge in long-term memory<\/em> to use large amounts of it effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cognitive science has LOTS of good news for teachers. Can we help students remember ideas and skills better? Yes, we can! (Check out retrieval practice and other desirable difficulties). Can we promote students\u2019 attention? Yes, we can! (Posner and Rothbart\u2019s \u201ctripartite\u201d theory gives us lots of guidance.) Can we foster motivation? Yes, we can! (As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,187],"class_list":["post-6575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6580,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions\/6580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}