Improve Working Memory?
A Brainpower Newsletter subscriber sent me the following question
about working memory:
It seems that the best way to increase overall intelligence
is to increase working memory, but I find many brain training
programs that might help with that boring. Video or computer
games, like one that involves air traffic controlling, might
be more interesting and useful. My question for you is what's
the best way to increase working memory, and do you know of such
games?
My answer:
Many researchers agree with you that working memory is the
basis of intelligence. It is defined (more or less), "the
structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating
information in short-term memory." In other words, the process
of holding things in our minds while we use them to think. Working
memory is considered by many to consist of the brain's central
components for reasoning and problem-solving.
Research that shows we cannot hold more than a few things
in our working memory at one time. When it appears that we are
working with more, it is because we "chunk" items,
like separating phone numbers into three and four digit groups
which are then remembered each as one thing. This kind of "chunking"
is an obvious way to improve the efficiency of our thinking,
although it does not increase capacity itself.
Now for the good news. I recently read about experiments done
by Torkel Klingberg, a cognitive neuroscience professor at the
Karolinska Institute in Sweden, in which working memory seemed
to be improved. Subjects were shown one number after another
on a computer screen and then asked to recall the one just before
the one on the screen at the moment. They did this relatively
quickly, but were much slower when asked to recall the number
shown two or three numbers before the one on the screen at the
moment.
What was interesting is that with practice there did seem
to be some increased ability to recall those earlier numbers
- and more quickly. This is seen by some as evidence of the expansion
of working memory. Others say that that it may just result from
learning to better identify the "position" of the numbers,
which may not involve any improvement in working memory.
In time we'll see if the research results are replicated,
and the alternate explanations ruled out. If so perhaps specific
exercises will be developed that can be proven to improve working
memory. In the meantime, any mental exercises that seem to target
working memory are probably good for brain function in general,
even if it turns out that they do not directly improve working
memory.
I don't have any recommendations for computer games, although
I recall a card game from childhood that I believe we called
"Concentration." All of the cards are laid face down
on a table and spread out. Then two cards are flipped face up
by a player. If they match the player gets to keep the pair and
try again. Otherwise the cards are again flipped face-down and
the turn ends.
Of course the difficulty is in remembering where all the various
cards are.That way, for example, when you flip over a "six"
you can recall where another six was previously exposed and turn
it over to win the pair. The player with the most pairs at the
end (when the cards are all off paired up) wins. Certainly this
game involves working memory, and whether or not it specifically
improves that, it is a good mental workout.
I am sure that there are some decent computer games for this,
and there will be more made. I like your idea of a air traffic
controller game. I imagine that would require a real exercising
of working memory, since a player presumably would need to keep
in kind and work with several bits of information at once. Keeping
track of planes landing and taking off is not a job I would want,
but as a game it might be fun to try.
Like yourself, I get bored with many memory and concentration
games. On the other hand, if one has a decent working memory
to start with, I'm not sure that seeking to improve it would
give the biggest gains in thinking ability. Consider for a moment
all the people working on this problem, most of whom are probably
not doing many exercises themselves to try to improve it. What
leads them to new discoveries is the approach they take. Though
most of these researchers are likely intelligent, this reasoning
and creativity is not based on raw intelligence alone, but on
how they use it.
A change of perspective, for example, or the willingness to
challenge existing assumptions, can lead to new discoveries,
new knowledge. A higher IQ would not necessarily encourage this
nor help. So although a way to improve working memory - and the
presumed IQ boost that would come with it - would be nice, there
are other things we can do to increase the efficiency of our
thinking and the creativity of our problem solving. As I have
said many times, once we have a minimum level of basic intelligence,
how we use it becomes more important than the measure of our
raw brainpower.
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