Brain Training – The Power of Working Memory
Like the mainspring in a clock, working memory provides the power for forward motion that keeps the brain ticking. Any shortfall or weakness in our working memory will have a serious impact on our cognitive ability. And, conversely, a particularly strong and effective working memory can supercharge our thinking skills.
All thought processes require the use of working memory. Whether we’re problem solving, absorbing information, planning, synthesizing, or deciding, working memory plays an integral role. But for all of its importance, working memory has a finite and remarkably small upper limit. This limit varies from person to person and differs according to the kind of information being stored, words being more difficult to remember than digits, for example, but most of us can hold in mind just five to seven pieces of information at one time.
The difference between a poor working memory and an excellent working memory then will be just a few items in short term storage, but this difference has a huge impact on academic and workplace performance, and emotional stability. Children and young adults with below-average working memory capacity find it difficult to focus and follow directions. And studies have shown that working memory yields a more accurate prediction of academic success than does a person’s intelligence.
In one fascinating and ingeniously simple piece of research, participants were asked to choose between a healthy salad and a piece of cake. Overwhelmingly respondents opted for the healthy salad. But when given the task of remembering a set of words before being asked the question, respondents more often than not chose cake. When we overload our working memory, our emotional responses surface quickly.
Fortunately, working memory responds to training. With intensive training, people can substantially increase their working memory capacity within a few weeks. A joint research team from the Universities of Michigan and Bern recently developed a working memory training protocol to train visual and aural working memory simultaneously. Not only did working memory scores rise by about 60% in 19 days, the training also increased the participants fluid intelligence by more than 40%, showing just what a critical resource working memory can be to other mental processes.
To be able to stimulate the brain change necessary, this training must be demanding. A challenging task that demands extreme focus causes the brain to produce new nerve cells; these cells then bolster the parts of the brain that maintain our working memory. Using brain scans a team from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden recently recorded these changes with before and after scans that clearly show the generation of the new brain cells from working memory training.
Whether you’re looking to correct a shortfall or boost your cognitive skills, working memory training can provide wonderful long term benefits. And with the appropriate training program these benefits are available to all. Highly recommended is the ingenious working-memory training protocol designed by the researchers from Michigan and Bern, known as “dual n-back” (which, I should add, in the interests of full disclosure, is used in my company’s brain training software, Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro.)
Unassuming, often overlooked, but critical to good thinking, working memory plays a pivotal role in every mental task from calculating the tip on a bill to choosing a life mate. With a small investment of time and some rewarding effort we can use brain training to help us do all of those things a whole lot better.
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