Working Memory & The Classroom

By Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide

It was nice to see an Education journal writing about working memory in the classroom. Working memory overload often contributes to impaired performance in such tasks as mathematical problem solving, reading for dyslexic students, writing for dyslexics and others(particularly when writing by hand), foreign or second language learning, note-taking and really any conceptually- or procedurally-demanding tasks. It probably won't surprise you that working memory problems are often mislabeled as poor effort, inattention, or lack of ability.

Working memory problems are important to recognize, though, because they are completely independent of abilities in long term memory - so that means a student can have quite a limited working memory span, but excellent long term memory. A person such as this can have encyclopedic knowledge, but be significant limited in how information is presented (e.g. a little bit at a time).

Given the importance of working memory to academic underperformance, it's surprising more attention has been given to it. Take a look at how a reduced working memory span correlated well with feelings of math anxiety.