| You've heard the expression: It goes in one ear | | | | not completing tasks, making careless mistakes, |
| and out the other. For individuals with sub-optimal | | | | and having difficulty in solving problems. |
| auditory working memory, this is pretty close to | | | | If you're thinking this sounds a lot like attention |
| the truth. | | | | deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit |
| What is auditory working memory (AWM) | | | | hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you're not the only |
| exactly? It is one part of the two part working | | | | one. A great deal of research in the last few |
| memory system. One part is the visual-spatial | | | | years has shown that low auditory working |
| sketchpad and the other is the verbal loop, often | | | | memory is indeed associated with ADD/ADHD. |
| called the phonological loop. It is the latter that is | | | | Interestingly, some research has shown that |
| usually referred to as AWM. Relevant information | | | | stimulant medications can enhance one's |
| is held in this auditory "storage" while a cognitive | | | | auditory-verbal and visual-spatial working memory. |
| activity is completed (e.g. a multi-step math | | | | However, there is no long term benefit. In other |
| problem or remembering a teacher's lecture long | | | | words, the working memory is improved only as |
| enough to get pertinent information written in the | | | | long as the medication is in the system. |
| notes). | | | | One approach that has been used to help |
| When information comes into our auditory | | | | students with low short term memory is to teach |
| system, we must actively rehearse what we | | | | material in a way that makes fewer demands, |
| have heard because this information rapidly | | | | especially on AWM. While this helps students in |
| decays after one or two seconds. In order to | | | | specific courses, it has no long term benefit for |
| repeat the information to ourselves, we must use | | | | working memory. In contrast, programs designed |
| selective attention, screening out irrelevant sounds | | | | to improve AWM (and visual spatial memory as |
| to attend to the significant information at hand. | | | | well) have demonstrated long term benefit to the |
| Research has shown that if short term memory | | | | point of actually increasing fluid intelligence (the |
| is low, we have a hard time selecting what we | | | | ability to reason quickly and think abstractly)! |
| wish to hear. In other words, selective attention | | | | These programs have been used successfully for |
| doesn't work so well when AWM is low. | | | | individuals with schizophrenia, traumatic brain |
| AWM is critical for every academic subject | | | | injury, dyslexia, and ADD/ADHD. Most programs |
| because it affects reading, reading comprehension, | | | | consist of strategies designed to "train the brain." |
| and math performance. It is also essential for | | | | It's much like training the muscles and |
| problem solving because we have to hold the | | | | cardiovascular system with physical exercise. It |
| problem in our short term memory long enough | | | | requires frequency, intensity, and duration. In the |
| to make sense of it. | | | | case of auditory working memory, a minimum of |
| What is the behavioral profile of a child with low | | | | two to three hours per week for several months |
| AWM? In the classroom, teachers describe these | | | | will usually bring the working memory up |
| children as inattentive, easily distracted, forgetting | | | | substantially, sometimes by several grade levels. |
| what they have learned, forgetting instructions, | | | | |