(Image: Nigel Sussman)
Working memory is your brain鈥檚 scratch pad and contributes to anything that needs effortful, focused thought. Here鈥檚 how to keep your mental pencils sharp
Like attention, working memory is one of the brain鈥檚 most crucial front-line functions. Everything you know and remember, whether it鈥檚 an event, a skill or a fascinating fact, started its journey into storage by going through your working memory.
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But working memory is much more than just a clearing house for long-term memories. It has been described as the brain鈥檚 scratch pad: the place where information is held and manipulated. If you are doing anything that requires effortful, focused thought, you are using your working memory.
In the 1970s, Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch of the University of York, UK, came up with an influential model to explain how the system works. The main component is the executive controller, which runs the show by focusing your attention on the relevant information.
It also kicks 鈥渟lave鈥� systems into action. One of these holds up to four pieces of visual information at a time; another can memorise about 2 seconds of sound, especially spoken words, which it loops over and over again (think of mentally repeating a phone number while you search for a pen). The third is the episodic buffer, which adds relevant information from long-term memory.
鈥淓ven modest gains in working memory can improve general cognition鈥�
A weakness of this model is that working memory doesn鈥檛 occupy a discrete brain area that can be watched in action in a brain scanner. Because of this, some cognitive neuroscientists have suggested that it might not be a separate system at all, but just the part of long-term memory that we are currently paying attention to.
Whatever it is, working memory comes as standard in the human brain, but some people have better working memories than others. Working memory capacity is a better predictor of academic success than IQ, so getting the most out of it is useful.
The good news is that the system can probably be upgraded. Some studies have shown that brain training programmes aimed specifically at working memory can produce improvements, and there are even a handful of training packages on the market. But it鈥檚 not clear whether they make you better at anything other than working memory tests.
Cognitive neuroscientist Jason Chein of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who studies working memory, says there seems to be evidence of improvements in other cognitive skills, although any changes are quite small. 鈥淎 small effect may still be important in the sense that even modest gains can have a meaningful impact on everyday cognition,鈥� he says.
Read more: 鈥�Mind expanding: 7 ways to fine-tune your brain鈥�
