memory?

[LaughingCat]

So I'm trying to wrap my head around memory in general. Here's my understanding (and please comment or tear it apart as you please :D):

 

Working memory - is your ability to both hold information short term and to manipulate whatever you are holding. You have a limited number of "things" you can hold in memory so working memory is affected by the number of items you can hold and your attention (competing items taking over available "slots").It can also be affected by stress. Auditory and visual memory are types of short term memory - each has it's own set of "slots". So you could be able to hold lots of auditory information and little visual information.

Working Memory can also access long term memory via chunking orthe way we combine things in order to hold more in our short term memory (i.e. 4 things "chunked" together = 1 thing in memory). Automaticity or overlearning are repeated practice that make the chunking easier.

 

Encoding is moving things from short term memory into long term memory. Recall is getting things back out of long term memory. Both encoding and recall are affected by meaningfulness, how much something relates to other things already known. Also a story or procedure can help due to linking each piece to a previous piece. And strong emotion can also increase encoding.

 

The major detractors to working memory appear to be:

1- small number of slots

2- less slots available due to a) lack of attention/uninteresting b)environment/sensory distractions c) stress

3- unable to recall associated information quickly

4- unable to encode information (so never get to chunking mechanism)

5- doesn't generalize well (improving ability with numbers may not help with words)

 

Practice can improve working memory:

number strings, starting with 3, moving to reversing

copying pictures from memory (often pegboard)

remembering picture details

reading word strings and repeating back

games like Simon & Loopz

memory games (Memory, Sherlock, DragonTales)

 

overlearning can improve working memory:

practice,practice,practice

stories to relate the information too

flash cards

 

Software that may help?:

Cogmed

Fast Forward (auditory only?)

Brainware Safari

[PeterPan]

I'm not sure what you mean by slots. The discussion the Eides give in "The Dyslexic Advantage" of how brain structure affects memory and learning really helped here.

[LaughingCat]

"slots" is just my way of thinking about the idea that you can only hold so many "things" in memory at once. So if something new comes in, then something else has to go out.

 

I should be getting Dyslexic Advantage from the library again very soon. I will keep the memory idea in mind as I read it.

 

What this is coming from: DD was just evaluated by a speech therapist and did significantly worse on a couple tests (involving repeating back what was said) that he said was "probably due to either auditory memory or processing speed". She also did poorly on the visual memory portion of her VT exam (start of last summer).

 

It got me printing out samples of various memory related workbooks (like the Linguasystem one) - thinking I would "try them out" on DD, and then that made me I realize I was feeling very scattered about the whole idea of memory, and what poor auditory and visual memory really mean, and what you do about it. So I'm trying to get the "idea of it" clear in my mind :)

[Laurie4b]

So I'm trying to wrap my head around memory in general. Here's my understanding (and please comment or tear it apart as you please :D):

 

Working memory - is your ability to both hold information short term and to manipulate whatever you are holding. You have a limited number of "things" you can hold in memory so working memory is affected by the number of items you can hold and your attention (competing items taking over available "slots").It can also be affected by stress. Auditory and visual memory are types of short term memory - each has it's own set of "slots". So you could be able to hold lots of auditory information and little visual information.

Working Memory can also access long term memory via chunking orthe way we combine things in order to hold more in our short term memory (i.e. 4 things "chunked" together = 1 thing in memory). Automaticity or overlearning are repeated practice that make the chunking easier.

 

Encoding is moving things from short term memory into long term memory. Recall is getting things back out of long term memory. Both encoding and recall are affected by meaningfulness, how much something relates to other things already known. Also a story or procedure can help due to linking each piece to a previous piece. And strong emotion can also increase encoding.

 

The major detractors to working memory appear to be:

1- small number of slots

2- less slots available due to a) lack of attention/uninteresting b)environment/sensory distractions c) stress

3- unable to recall associated information quickly

4- unable to encode information (so never get to chunking mechanism)

5- doesn't generalize well (improving ability with numbers may not help with words)

 

Practice can improve working memory:

number strings, starting with 3, moving to reversing

copying pictures from memory (often pegboard)

remembering picture details

reading word strings and repeating back

games like Simon & Loopz

memory games (Memory, Sherlock, DragonTales)

 

overlearning can improve working memory:

practice,practice,practice

stories to relate the information too

flash cards

 

Software that may help?:

Cogmed

Fast Forward (auditory only?)

Brainware Safari

 

My understanding is that working memory impact attention, not vice versa. So if you should have 7 working memory "slots" and you have 1, and you get distracted, and the distraction ends, unlike someone with intact working memory, the working memory contains nothing once the distraction is ended. This appears to be lack of attention, but is lack of working memory.

 

Overlearning does not influence working memory; it is designed to get things into long term memory permanently.

 

Working memory capacity is what can be "worked with" in the present at one time. I think of it as what is on the screen on the computer--perhaps how many windows can be opened at once. Long term memory is on files that are saved. Short term memory is on files that haven't been saved yet. Some short term memory files could be in working memory, and later get moved to long term memory or, as many should be, discarded.

 

I don't know of research for anything to improve working memory in a way that generalizes, other than Cogmed. It has a very solid research base. I did note that my son's working memory seemed to improve from Brainware Safari, but that is anecdotal evidence.

[Laurie4b]

So I'm trying to wrap my head around memory in general. Here's my understanding (and please comment or tear it apart as you please :D):

 

Working memory - is your ability to both hold information short term and to manipulate whatever you are holding. You have a limited number of "things" you can hold in memory so working memory is affected by the number of items you can hold and your attention (competing items taking over available "slots").It can also be affected by stress. Auditory and visual memory are types of short term memory - each has it's own set of "slots". So you could be able to hold lots of auditory information and little visual information.

Working Memory can also access long term memory via chunking orthe way we combine things in order to hold more in our short term memory (i.e. 4 things "chunked" together = 1 thing in memory). Automaticity or overlearning are repeated practice that make the chunking easier.

 

Encoding is moving things from short term memory into long term memory. Recall is getting things back out of long term memory. Both encoding and recall are affected by meaningfulness, how much something relates to other things already known. Also a story or procedure can help due to linking each piece to a previous piece. And strong emotion can also increase encoding.

 

The major detractors to working memory appear to be:

1- small number of slots

2- less slots available due to a) lack of attention/uninteresting b)environment/sensory distractions c) stress

3- unable to recall associated information quickly

4- unable to encode information (so never get to chunking mechanism)

5- doesn't generalize well (improving ability with numbers may not help with words)

 

Practice can improve working memory:

number strings, starting with 3, moving to reversing

copying pictures from memory (often pegboard)

remembering picture details

reading word strings and repeating back

games like Simon & Loopz

memory games (Memory, Sherlock, DragonTales)

 

overlearning can improve working memory:

practice,practice,practice

stories to relate the information too

flash cards

 

Software that may help?:

Cogmed

Fast Forward (auditory only?)

Brainware Safari

 

My understanding is that working memory impacts attention, not vice versa. So if you should have 7 working memory "slots" and you have 1, and you get distracted, and the distraction ends, unlike someone with intact working memory, someone with impaired working memory my find the working memory now contains nothing once the distraction is ended. Thus, they go play marbles or whatever else comes to mind. This appears to be lack of attention, but is lack of working memory.

 

I believe that when you list "uninteresting" material above that you are referring to attention, not working memory. All of us can most easily sustain attention/focus when we are either interested in something; however, a normal brain can sustain attention on boring but necessary tasks, such as cleaning, paying bills, writing a paper. A person with ADHD struggles with attention in less-than-interesting tasks. That's one reason why they procrastinate--it is a coping mechanism. Once they get close the the deadline, the adrenaline rush from the panic gives them the tunnel vision of focus that is necessary in a flight or fight situation. That's called hyperfocus.

 

Overlearning does not influence working memory; it is designed to get things from short term memory into long term memory permanently .

 

Working memory capacity is what can be "worked with" in the present at one time. I think of it as what is on the screen on the computer--perhaps how many windows can be opened at once. Long term memory is on files that are saved. Short term memory is on files that haven't been saved yet. Some short term memory files could be in working memory, and later get moved to long term memory or, as many should be, discarded.

 

I don't know of research for anything to improve working memory in a way that generalizes, other than Cogmed. Until the research done by the guy who came up with Cogmed, it was believed that working memory could be improved for a specific task (by training and repetition) but not that that improvement could generalize into better working memory overall. His research seems to have changed current scientific thinking in that regard. Cogmed has a very solid research base among varying populations and universities are researching additional ones. I am aware for instance, of one major teaching hospital researching its use for children who have had chemo and the associated cognitive impacts.

 

I did note that my son's working memory seemed to improve from Brainware Safari, but that is anecdotal evidence.

[merry gardens]

You wrote a nice post to summarizing some information about the current trains of thought on memory.

 

I recently came back to the issue of memory. It's one of my ds's lowest areas and it's made everything related to learning harder. We use materials developed for people dyslexia, and we still have to repeat the information numerous times before it sticks. As I was looking at the LinguiSytem Executive Function books that others on this board have used, I realized that what he really need is help with his memory. Instead of the ef books, I bought the LinguiSystem book "Help For Memory". Working through the "Help for Memory" book, some days I just want to cry for him.

 

After reading your post yesterday, I found an article on memory that you might find interesting. http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2009/05/10/10-students-may-have-working-memory-problems-why-does-it-matter/

 

...In screen­ing of over 3000 school-aged stu­dents in main­stream schools, 1 in 10 was iden­ti­fied as hav­ing work­ing mem­ory dif­fi­cul­ties. There were sev­eral key find­ings regard­ing their cog­ni­tive skills. The first is that the major­ity of them per­formed below age-expected lev­els in read­ing and math­e­mat­ics. This sug­gests that low work­ing mem­ory skills con­sti­tute a high risk fac­tor for edu­ca­tional under­achieve­ment for stu­dents. This cor­re­sponds with evi­dence that work­ing mem­ory impacts all areas of learn­ing from kinder­garten to col­lege. It is a basic cog­ni­tive skill that we need to per­form a vari­ety of activ­i­ties, and we use it in core sub­jects like read­ing and maths, as well as gen­eral top­ics like Art and Music. Cru­cially, this pat­tern of poor per­for­mance in learn­ing out­comes remains even when stu­dents’ IQ is sta­tis­ti­cally accounted.

This fits well with evi­dence sug­gest­ing that work­ing mem­ory is even more impor­tant to learn­ing than other cog­ni­tive skills such as IQ. For exam­ple, in typ­i­cally devel­op­ing stu­dents, I found that their work­ing mem­ory skills, rather than IQ, at 5 years old were the best pre­dic­tor of pre­dic­tor of read­ing, spelling, and math out­comes six years later....

Edited February 1, 2012 by merry gardens

[LaughingCat]

My understanding is that working memory impacts attention, not vice versa. So if you should have 7 working memory "slots" and you have 1, and you get distracted, and the distraction ends, unlike someone with intact working memory, someone with impaired working memory my find the working memory now contains nothing once the distraction is ended. Thus, they go play marbles or whatever else comes to mind. This appears to be lack of attention, but is lack of working memory.

 

Ah, this is good - because I was thinking more in terms of distractors taking over only some "slots" - but you're right of course - the distractors could take over all the slots or so many that the task is "gone". I think attention goes both ways though - if you maintain your attention on the task you can refuse to give up the "slot" so to speak. DD can be distractable of course but often she can stay on task far past the average child - both testers (VT and ST) commented on it for example. Also there is hyperfocus - able to shut out distractions when the task is important enough. And of course the the "gorilla walking across the basketball game" experiement - where the people were so focused on the task of counting throws they didn't see the person in the gorilla suit.

 

Overlearning does not influence working memory; it is designed to get things from short term memory into long term memory permanently .

 

A lot of the reading I was doing talked about how long term memory and short term memory interact - that people can hold more in their short term memory if they can "tag" it to something in their long term memory - which is how you move from sounding out words to reading them as a whole, to reading sentence fragments as a whole. Or how a chess master can match a chess board layout to known chess layouts in their memory. Of course, it doesn't expand what short term memory you have but it lets you hold more in each "slot". But it should mean that overlearning should help create a bigger "chunk" to go into the slot.

 

I don't know of research for anything to improve working memory in a way that generalizes, other than Cogmed.

 

This is interesting because when I looked at a video of Cogmed, it doesn't look all that unique. Repeating back numbers, remembering sequences kind of thing.

[LaughingCat]

I bought the LinguiSystem book "Help For Memory". Working through the "Help for Memory" book, some days I just want to cry for him.

 

Whoops, I forgot to include the few workbooks type things I'd found in my original post. I've really been considering the Linguasystems Workbooks too :) Plus I read that article - it made me want to cry :crying:

 

Workbooks:

Help for Memory (Linguasystems)

No Glamour Memory (Linguasystems)

Auditory Memory for Short Stories (Super Duper Fun Deck) (+ other similar)

 

also some pages from Auditory Processing & Auditory Processing and Expressing Language (Super Duper) - most sample pages didn't appear to apply though

[Carolina3]

This thread has really helped me understand the memory component which is my son's weakest area as well. He scored 8% on it. I'm going to take a look at the Linguist books - what about the hearbuilder auditory memory software from Super Duper Inc? Has anyone had any experience with it? Obviously it would (if it worked) only work on auditory memory. How does PACE compare with Cogmed? Does it focus on memory issues as well? And does it have any research to back it up? (Not trying to hijack the thread but really curious about this subject!) Thanks!

[PeterPan]

Yes, PACE works on working memory, visualization, all sorts of things. Our VT place does it. If you haven't gotten his eyes checked yet by a developmental optometrist, you should do that FIRST, and then look at PACE. Our place doesn't do PACE until you do that, because the eyes can be part of the problem.

 

You mentioned auditory memory. There are different types (visual working memory, auditory working memory), so there can be differences there too.

[misslissa]

Check out the Brain Integration Therapy Manual or Disconnected Kid or Smart Moves: Why all learning is not in your head. They all address balancing the right and left sides of the brain and how that affects learning and memory.

[Laurie4b]

 

This is interesting because when I looked at a video of Cogmed, it doesn't look all that unique. Repeating back numbers, remembering sequences kind of thing.

 

It may look similar, but I've not seen anything else with research basis. In fact, there was some research that came out on some other game type stuff that said they didn't actually create significant differences. It's possible there is some other stuff out there that would impact in a way that generalizes, but I have seen no double-blind studies published in peer-reviewed journals for anything else.