20 Facts You Must Know About Working Memory
June 2, 2010
It’s important to understand the characteristics of working memory when you’re designing nearly anything that requires mental effort. Without adapting learning experiences to the learner’s cognitive architecture, instructional design is hit or miss.
Current research in this area is demonstrating that working memory (a theoretical structure) is a dynamic and flexible entity.
The Basics
- Working memory used to be called short-term memory. It was redefined to focus on its functionality rather than its duration.
- Working memory can be thought of as the equivalent of being mentally online. It refers to the temporary workspace where we manipulate and process information.
- No one physical location in the brain appears to be responsible for creating the capacity of working memory. But several parts of the brain seem to contribute to this cognitive structure.
- Working memory is characterized by a small capacity. It can hold around four elements of new information at one time.
- Because learning experiences typically involve new information, the capacity of working memory makes it difficult to assimilate more than around four bits of information simultaneously.
- The capacity of working memory depends on the category of the elements or chunks as well as their features. For example, we can hold more digits in working memory than letters and more short words than long words.
- The limitations on working memory disappear when working with information from long-term memory (permanent storage) because that information is organized into schemata. Schemata are higher order structures made up of multiple elements that help to reduce the overload on working memory.
- Novel information in working memory is temporary. It is either encoded into long-term memory or it decays or is replaced.
- Unless it is actively attended to or rehearsed, information in working memory has a short duration of around 20 seconds.
- Similar to the capacity issue, it takes mental effort to hold information in working memory for an extended time and can also be a cause of cognitive overwhelm.
- There is a continuous transfer of of information between long-term memory and working memory—both retrieval and transfer.
- Information is retrieved from long-term memory into working memory in order to make sense out of new information.
- Information that we attend to and integrate into our knowledge structures is transferred or encoded into long-term memory.
- Current research demonstrates that individual differences in working memory capacity may account for differences in performance of information processing tasks, like reading and note-taking.
- In studies with children, those who have a poor ability to store material over brief periods of time (difficulties with working memory) fail to progress normally in tasks related to literacy.
- An individual’s developmental age and level of expertise probably account for differences in working memory. For example, facilitating learning can be helpful for novices but detrimental to experts. See Novice Versus Expert Design Strategies.
- Cognitive load refers to the demands placed on working memory in terms of storage and information processing.
- Intrinsic load is caused by the nature of the learning task and extraneous load refers to the demands caused by the format of the instruction.
- Cognitive load theory states that traditional instructional techniques can overload working memory because they don’t account for intrinsic and extraneous load. Instructional designers can facilitate learning by considering and accommodating different loads.
- Germane load refers to the demands placed on working memory when learners are engaged in conscious cognitive processing to construct schemata while acquiring new knowledge. Increasing the germane load can most likely assist the learning process.
Capacity
Duration
Interactions with Long-term Memory
Individual Differences
Cognitive Load
References:
Patricia L. Smith and Tillman J Ragan. Instructional Design, Wiley, 2004.
Tamara van Gog et. al., Instructional Design for Advanced Learners. ETR&D, Vol. 53, No. 3, 2005, pp. 73–81.
Wolfgang Schnotz and Christian Ku?rschner. A Reconsideration of Cognitive Load Theory. Educ Psychol Rev (2007) 19:469–508
Related Articles:
Novice Versus Expert Design Strategies
Cognitive Psychology Anyone?
10 Relevant Facts About The Brain
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Great synopses of information processing and cognitive load theory. You do have a couple of typos in #18 and #19. There is no term “extrinsic load.” The correct term is extraneous load. I’m still bookmarking now for my students.
~michael
Thanks for catching those errors, Michael. I’ve corrected them. I blame it on too little sleep and too little time. =]
Nice summary. Would be really interested in the citations for the studies you reference.
Hi Dianne,
You’re right, I should do that. Please check back in a few days and I’ll try to round them up.
Connie
Thanks for this great summary! I am a student in a graduate program in IDT, (in career transition at the moment). I especially appreciate your section on ‘Cognitive Load’, very interesting & I had not encountered the theory before. I’m going to check out the reference you listed. Are there also practical applications of the theory in the book you cited?
Hi Sarah,
I think Smith and Ragan’s book, Instructional Design, does have practical applications. But you know, that might be in the eye of the beholder. So you might want to check it out first in your university library to see if that’s the book for you.
Best,
Connie
Pretty neat! Very helpful to quickly understand important aspects of WM.
However, environmental cues will activate a part of LTM, which is then accessible to WM. Then, the working/active memory holds a representation of recent events, like noting information in an advertisement. So, does this kind of working memory constitute a separate memory store or is it just an “activated” portion of LTM?
Hi Sreemla,
My understanding is that when the representations from LTM are activated, they are brought into WM, which is what allows us to understand the world. I haven’t read about another name for this memory store, but it’s possible there is one. I wonder if you could find out from one of those Q&A sites, where you ask questions of experts. If you do find out, please let us know.
Nice to hear from you,
Connie
Nice WM summation, Connie. Your points 7-9 interrelate and are the reason point 12 is needed in any learning task. A continual juggling of new information and known facts in WM develops the meaningfulness between them and facilitates the encoding you mention in point 13. All good so far, but what do IDs watch/plan for to keep the cognitive load in the germane range and minimize the extraneous load? In another of your blogs, Characteristics of Adult Learners, one of your commenters mentions breaking the content down into ‘small bites’ to stay within the learner’s attention span or focus. As a past curriculum designer in the military and now a graduate student of ID, breaking a learning task into meaningful sub-tasks or activities has been something I have paid attention to for many years. The Cognitive Load aspect is a new wrinkle, as mentioned by Sarah, so I will also check the book and begin some WM ‘juggling’ of my own.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your comments. In answer to your question, “What do IDs watch/plan for to keep the cognitive load in the germane range and minimize the extraneous load?” — often IDers just need to focus on the learning outcome as it applies to the workplace. What tasks will the learner be performing? Then include only the content (including interactions) that support the tasks that people will perform.
I know this can be difficult in some fields, like medicine, where the healthcare worker needs a very large knowledge base of information in order to diagnose and treat. When working with SMEs in these cases, I explain how and why “less is more.” Then ask for their help in slimming things down to the essentials. That’s another approach.
Connie