By ELAINE DONG
WORKING memory is your brain’s ability to remember information and to work with that information.
“If a teacher asks a child to remember three words – “dog”, “cat” and “bat” – that’s short-term memory. But if the teacher were to ask which two words rhyme, then the child would say “cat” and “bat”. That’s using working memory,” says Dr Tracy Alloway.
“Or when you’re making pancakes, you have to remember the many ingredients and recall whether you already put in the flour, for instance.
“It is what you use in your daily life. It’s not just remembering, but working with, that knowledge.”
Working memory has been Dr Alloway’s passion for the past 15 years, and she has done extensive research and fieldwork in this area. She has also published over 75 scientific articles and books on working memory and learning, and has developed the world’s first standardised working-memory tests for educators, published by Pearson. International media such as Guardian, Daily Mail, Forbes, US News, Scientific American, ABC News and NBC have highlighted her work. She is an acclaimed speaker on the topic and an advisor to the
World Bank on the importance of working memory.
Recently, Dr Alloway was in Kuala Lumpur for a one-day seminar on working memory. This 36-year-old mother-of-two was born in Malaysia and spent her first 12 years here before moving to the United States. She then moved to Britain, where she has been based for the last 13 years. In Britain, she is the director of the Centre For Memory And Learning In The Lifespan, and an associate professor at University of Stirling in Scotland.
Dr Alloway stresses the importance of working memory as an indicator of academic performance. “I have been involved in a government-funded project on working memory for the last 15 years, and what we have found is that one to two in 10 kids have poor working memory.
“Working memory is a much better predictor than IQ when it comes to learning. People get frustrated because these are kids with high or average IQ but their grades are below average. We have found that working memory is the bridge. The kids know facts, they memorise them, but they don’t know what to do with them,” says Dr Alloway.
In her research, Dr Alloway has worked with kids at both ends of the spectrum: the very gifted and those with special needs. The common problem is always working memory.
“Think of working memory as the brain’s post-it notes. An average five-year-old has the capacity of two post-it notes. So when you tell him to go to his room, pick up his shirt and read a book, he probably cannot do it! That happens in the classroom all the time. Kids are given too many instructions and they don’t have enough room or space to process that information.
“Often you hear teachers or parents describing a child as not attentive, daydreamer, lazy. But it’s none of those things. The kids just need to expand their post-it notes,” says Dr Alloway.
She brings a message of hope when she speaks of training working memory.
“The size of your working memory at age five is the best predictor of your grades six years later, more so than IQ. But five doesn’t have to be the critical age. That’s the exciting thing. The brain can adjust and expand, much like a rubber band,” says Dr Alloway.
Through her research, she has come up with a programme to do this with kids, called Jungle Memory. It is designed as a game, but the kids are actually training their working memory as they work on the different levels.
“From a study I did that concluded in 2010, we found that at age five, your working memory is around two post-it notes, at 10, it’s four. You reach your working memory peak in your 30s at around six post-its, and from there it starts to decline. The good news is these figures are not static, they can be changed with brain training,” she says.
She has had adults e-mail her after reading about working memory and telling her how they struggled with working memory and wished that they had help when they were in school.
“You don’t grow out of poor working memory. It’ll stay with you if you don’t do something to change it. And poor working memory can be reversed at any age,” she says.
Dr Alloway has seen kids thrive after going through online training using her programme. “Jasmine was a girl who struggled in school. Her teacher told her to try harder, but her mother could see that that was the best she could do at the time. Jasmine has poor working memory; she cannot process the information at school. She went through training online and since then, she has improved tremendously. She told me she felt so good about herself. Recently, her mother sent me a photgraph of her holding up a memory award she had won!
“It’s always difficult for the child struggling in school, and if working memory is the problem, it can easily be corrected. Your child will then gain confidence and thrive.”
* The programme is offered by KidzGrow (www.kidzgrow.com.my).