Defects in working memory

by SamCogar Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:44 am

CHICAGO - Defects in working memory — the brain's temporary storage bin — may explain why one child cannot read her history book and another gets lost in algebra, new research suggests.

As many as 10 percent of school age children may suffer from poor working memory, British researchers said in a report last week, yet the problem remains rarely identified.

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Working memory allows people to hold and manipulate a few items in their minds, such as a telephone number. Alloway compares working memory to a box.

For adults, the basic box size is thought to be three to five items. People who have more than that on a mental grocery list are likely to forget something.

"Since there is this limit, it is important to put in the right thing. Irrelevant information will clutter up working memory," Nelson Cowan, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Missouri, said in a telephone interview.

The question many researchers are struggling with is how to help people with this problem, which appears to be closely tied with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Lost in the middle

Levine said working memory allows a reader to remember what is at the beginning of the page when reaching the end of the page. Kids with trouble with active working memory get lost in the middle.

"One little girl told me recently, 'Every time I read a sentence it erases the one that was before it,"' Levine said in a telephone interview. "That's a perfect example of an active working memory dysfunction."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23435941/