por What is working memory?
The work memory It is a cognitive element that serves to store and manipulate for a short period of time the data necessary to perform complex psychological tasks. For example, this mental element helps us with learning, thinking, and understanding our environment.
Working memory plays a role in tasks such as information selection, data storage, reasoning, and switching from short-term to long-term memory. On the other hand, many experts believe that working memory is the element with the greatest weight in the level of intelligence of each person.
A classic test to measure working memory capacity is to study the number of items, usually words or numbers, that an individual can recall and manipulate at one time using only their short-term memory. It has been verified that the average is seven items, this being the maximum number of items that a person can retain in this part of their memory.
Although some researchers consider short-term and working memory to be the same, most experts believe that both elements of our mind are different and perform different tasks.
Working memory characteristics
Has a limited capacity
Although much research has been done on the limits of human memory, it has not yet been possible for us to determine what they are, or even if there is a limit at all. However, these investigations have almost always focused on long-term memory, which is what allows us to remember almost unlimited amounts of information.
Working memory is different. Studies carried out focusing on it have discovered that a normal person can only retain approximately seven different elements in this part of memory, in such a way that if this number is exceeded, it will be necessary to forget a previous one to store a new one in it.
This characteristic also occurs in a similar way in short-term memory, although not in such an exaggerated way.
work actively
The main difference between working memory and the other components of human memory is that it is not only limited to passively storing data, but also allows us to manipulate and work with it. This allows us to use it to perform complex cognitive tasks, and makes it a fundamental element in our psyche.
For example, working memory plays a very important role in tasks such as reading, solving mathematical problems or different types of learning, especially those related to a complex skill.
Its contents are constantly updated
Because working memory only has the capacity to store seven elements or items, its nature is much more volatile than that of the other memory components. Thus, the long-term can retain information or memories for many decades, while the short-term is capable of doing so in a space of several hours.
By contrast, working memory is only capable of holding data for a few seconds unless the person is making a conscious and sustained effort to maintain the information stored there. If this does not happen, its contents are constantly being updated, as we pay attention to different elements of the environment.
It is related to intelligence
Within the most classical theories of psychology, working memory is usually related to what is known as the “G factor”. This would be the component that could explain the differences that exist between people’s intelligence levels, in such a way that individuals with better working memory would have greater mental capacity.
This relationship would have to do with the ability that working memory provides us to manipulate information and use it for highly complex tasks. However, not all experts agree that the level of working memory and intelligence are as directly related as previously thought.
How it works and components of working memory
The first theory on working memory was that of Baddeley and Hitch, presented in 1974. In it they discussed the multicomponent model of working memory. The hypothesis proposed that it was a cognitive element that contained three segments: the central executive, the phonological loop, and the articulatory loop.
central executive
In this model, the central executive would be in charge of regulating the attention of the other two elements, which would be in charge of manipulating the data collected through the senses or thought. Each of them would be focused on a specific type of task.
The central executive would have among its main tasks the redirection of attention capacity towards relevant information from the environment, suppressing irrelevant stimuli and impulses that were not appropriate for the present task. In addition, he would also have to coordinate different cognitive processes whenever more than one activity was taking place at the same time.
phonological loop
On the other hand, the phonological loop has the objective of storing the information coming from sounds and language and avoiding its loss by constantly repeating it, in a continuous process that is what gives it its name. For example, to be able to remember a telephone number in the short term we have to repeat it over and over again until we can dial them.
articulatory loop
The other secondary system is the articulatory loop. Its function is to store visual and spatial information, and for example it can be used to build visual images in our mind and manipulate them. Some experts consider that this component can be divided into two subsystems, one responsible for the visual part and the other for the spatial part.
episodic buffer
In the year 2000, Baddeley himself added a fourth component to his theory, known as the episodic buffer. This would be in charge of working with mental representations that included a mixture of types of information; that is to say, that they had visual, auditory, spatial and other kinds of elements.
Processing speed and working memory
Processing speed is one of the most important cognitive abilities, and one of the ones that most determine our results in tasks such as learning, comprehension or reasoning. It can be defined as the cognitive element that determines the time it takes a person to perform a given mental task.
Processing speed is closely related to the speed with which the individual perceives, processes and reacts to all types of stimuli received from their environment and from within, regardless of their nature. Despite the fact that its scope is not directly related to that of working memory, both have a very significant impact on psychological performance.
So while processing speed affects how quickly we can manipulate and understand the information we receive from our environment, working memory determines how effectively we can perform these mental tasks. Therefore, these are two of the elements that most determine our levels of general intelligence.
Working memory brain regions
The activity that carries out working memory is carried out in specific regions of the brain. Specifically, working memory seems to be associated with the functioning of neocortical areas.
In this sense, in order to activate working memory, the activation of the prefrontal cortex is required. This upper region of the brain is considered essential for storing and manipulating new information in the mind.
Thus, working memory is not produced in a single part of the brain. This cognitive construct requires the activation of a specific circuit of neurons.
Although working memory initially starts up thanks to the activation of the prefrontal cortex, for it to function properly, other neuroanatomical structures such as the temporal lobe and the occipital lobe must be activated.
It has been shown that the temporal lobe allows the storage and manipulation of verbal information in the short term. This area of the brain would give rise to the activity of the phonological loop. For its part, the occipital lobe is responsible for processing visual information, so it performs the activities pertinent to the visual-spatial agenda.
Examples of working memory
As we have already seen, working memory is the mental capacity that allows us to keep the information we need in our brain while we complete a specific task. This process is very useful in many situations, including the following:
Relate two or more elements that apparently have no connection. This happens, for example, when remembering and relating the data that was mentioned during a discussion to give them coherence.
Associate a new idea with something we had already learned in the past. In this way, working memory allows us to expand our knowledge.
Retaining data while we focus on something else. For example, we can prepare the ingredients we need to cook a specific dish while chatting on the phone as normal.
Activities to work on working memory
Working memory is one of the most important elements of our mind, since it allows us to concentrate on the task we are doing at all times, remember information in the short and medium term, and carry out new learning. However, to this day, no way to train this ability directly has yet been discovered.
Even so, various investigations have shown that certain changes in lifestyle and the repetition of some activities can indirectly improve our working memory. The most important are the following:
Sleep well
Resting correctly at night has a very positive impact on many areas of life, but one of the areas most affected by this factor is working memory. Lack of sleep can decrease our ability to retain and manipulate information with it.
lead a healthy lifestyle
The lack of exercise or the consumption of unhealthy foods can worsen the capacity of our working memory. In extreme cases, what is known as «cognitive fog» may appear, a phenomenon experienced by people who have great difficulty thinking clearly.
reduce distractions
For working memory to function properly, we must be in an environment that is as free of distracting stimuli as possible. Therefore, if you eliminate everything that takes you out of your task, you will realize that it is much easier for you to concentrate, reason and learn new information.