{"id":6820,"date":"2022-11-13T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6820"},"modified":"2022-11-12T11:51:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T16:51:42","slug":"working-memory-in-everyday-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/working-memory-in-everyday-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Memory in Everyday Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine this scenario: you\u2019re standing in the CVS toothpaste aisle, trying to decide.<\/p>\n

You think you should be able to recognize something familiar, but honestly there are so many choices<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Which brand are you loyal to?<\/p>\n

Do you want mint?<\/p>\n

Fluoride? Foaming? Whitening?<\/p>\n

A patented \u201csensitive teeth\u201d formula? Bacon flavor?<\/p>\n

I think I made up the bacon. But, given all those choices and all the combinations<\/em>, you simply can\u2019t decide.<\/p>\n

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

If you\u2019re like me, you feebly grab at something plausible and make a dash for the register.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve had a long day of grading, you might just give up entirely.<\/p>\n

So: what on earth is going on in your head? Why is picking a box of toothpaste so exhausting?<\/p>\n

Cognition Im\/possible<\/h2>\n

When I meet with teachers, I regularly discuss the importance of working memory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This vital cognitive capacity<\/a>\u00a0allows students to hold on to several bits of information, and to reorganize\/combine them into new facts, processes, and mental models.<\/p>\n

Oversimplifying a bit, you could say it\u2019s where the learning starts happening in the mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This essential mental process, however, creates two important problems<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The first problem<\/strong>: our students just don\u2019t have very much working memory<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you see students forget the question they were about to ask, or give up on a shockingly simple task, or lose focus completely, you might just be looking at working-memory overload.<\/p>\n

It happens all the time.<\/p>\n

The second problem<\/strong>: most of the ideas that we want our students to learn already exist in our own long-term memory<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

We really struggle to see the working-memory load included in their work, because we already know how to do it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t they do this simple math problem?<\/p>\n

Why do they struggle to use new vocabulary words into a sentence?<\/p>\n

And, why isn\u2019t the answer to a history question perfectly obvious?<\/p>\n

In every case, the correct answer is in our<\/em> long-term memory, but students must wrestle with it in their<\/em> working-memory.<\/p>\n

In other words, our own expertise obscures our students\u2019 mental struggles from us.<\/p>\n

But: when we go to the CVS toothpaste aisle, we know exactly<\/em> what they\u2019re going through. Too many mental variables \u2013 not enough headspace. Ugh.<\/em><\/p>\n

When In Rome\u2026<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve spent the last week in Rome for a conference, and \u2013 believe it or not \u2013 found myself thinking about all that toothpaste.<\/p>\n

Why? Because: museums<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I visited several museums, and was repeatedly struck by my own working-memory overload.<\/p>\n

For example, the room with all those coins:<\/p>\n

What should I be learning from the hundreds (and hundreds!!) of doubloons and coppers and denarii?<\/p>\n

Which are the most important examples?<\/p>\n

Should I spot trends<\/em> or cycles<\/em> or dramatic shifts<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Of course, the museum folks know that I have those questions, so they provide answers:<\/p>\n

Hundreds and hundreds of little cards with LOTS of information<\/em> about the coins.<\/p>\n

All that information includes specialized vocabulary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And those vocabulary words get helpful definitions<\/em> in parentheses.<\/p>\n

All these answers \u2013 the information, the vocabulary, the definitions \u2013 benefit other experts in ancient coins.<\/p>\n

But they leave me even more confused and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

In other words: like some teachers, museum experts did not recognize the cognitive overload experienced by many students\/museum-goers.<\/p>\n

I wanted to learn.<\/p>\n

I wanted to understand.<\/p>\n

Certainly I wanted to appreciate.<\/p>\n

But I just didn\u2019t know how to process SO MUCH STUFF. And, don\u2019t get me started on\u00a0 the rooms with helmets or wine-jugs…<\/p>\n

Inherent Expertise<\/h2>\n

At the same time I noted my own experience of working-memory overload, I experienced several museum collections that did NOT overwhelm my brain.<\/p>\n

For instance, the first room (more or less) in the Vatican Museum includes several hundred<\/em> busts: matrons, soldiers, children, priests, emperors, even an enslaved person.<\/p>\n

To my surprise, I didn\u2019t feel overwhelmed; instead, I felt curious and enticed. I wanted to look at the faces and speculate about their identities and stories and personalities.<\/p>\n

Why the different reaction? Here\u2019s my hypothesis:<\/p>\n

I have no expertise in coins (or wine jars), and so all those samples felt overwhelming.<\/p>\n

However, I have LOTS of expertise with faces. I spend most of my days interacting with them and the personalities behind them.<\/p>\n

My inherent expertise<\/strong> with faces meant that 1000 busts felt fun and interesting, whereas 1000 helmets filled me with boredom and dread.<\/p>\n

Classroom Implications<\/h2>\n

I said above that our teacherly expertise makes it difficult for us to spot our students\u2019 working memory struggles.<\/p>\n

For that reason, I think we should always look out for the working-memory overload that we all experience.<\/p>\n

Driving to a new location in a rental car? Wondering where the rear defrost button is, and when to turn left? Could be working memory overload\u2026<\/p>\n

Navigating a new cafeteria, trying to find the silverware and the beverages and the gluten-free options? The salad dressing is where again? Yup: working memory overload\u2026<\/p>\n

Too many options when you\u2019re trying to choose a hotel on that website? Perhaps you\u2019re furious about all those helpful pop-ups? You know the feeling\u2026<\/p>\n

In brief: the better we get at recognizing working-memory problems in our own lives, the better we may become at spotting the problems our students are likely to have.<\/p>\n

Empathy may be the pathway to understanding.<\/p>\n

And, that empathy just might help us teach better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine this scenario: you\u2019re standing in the CVS toothpaste aisle, trying to decide. You think you should be able to recognize something familiar, but honestly there are so many choices. Which brand are you loyal to? Do you want mint? Fluoride? Foaming? Whitening? A patented \u201csensitive teeth\u201d formula? Bacon flavor? I think I made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-6820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-working-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820","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=6820"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6827,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820\/revisions\/6827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}