Working Memory: Our ability to hold information in our head while we work with it.
ADHD and Working Memory #adhd #shorts – YouTube
Working Memory: Our ability to hold information temporarily in our head while we work with it for a short period of time.
In computer terms, it’s kind of like our RAM. It’s where we store information we’re actively working with-either by remembering it, often while paying attention to something else, or doing something with it.
We use working memory for things like remembering a number while we look for a pen to write it down, doing math in our head, or remembering what we just read.
Why I Can’t Remember Things — How ADHD Affects Working Memory – YouTube
Working memory: holding several pieces of information in mind while we try to do something with them—for example, understand and solve a problem or carry out a task.
Executive Function and Child Development
Working Memory is like a GPS of the Mind
Working Memory Isn’t Working in ADHD: What to Do – YouTube
WM refers to a cognitive system that allows us to maintain and manipulate information in mind for short periods of time to guide behavior.
Working Memory | Executive Functions
Most people think of memory in terms of short-term and long-term memory. So what’s so different about working memory?
In a nutshell, working memory involves our ability to hold information in our mind for short periods (that’s the memory part) in order to do something with it (that’s the working part).
Peter Doolittle sums it up brilliantly in this TED talk.
The Impact of Working Memory Difficulties on Learning
“working memory,” that part of the brain that allows us to make sense of what’s happening right now.
Peter Doolittle: How your “working memory” makes sense of the world | TED Talk
Now working memory has four basic components. It allows us to store some immediate experiences and a little bit of knowledge. It allows us to reach back into our long-term memory and pull some of that in as we need it, mixes it, processes it in light of whatever our current goal is. Now the current goal isn’t something like, I want to be president or the best surfer in the world. It’s more mundane. I’d like that cookie, or I need to figure out how to get into my hotel room. Now working memory capacity is our ability to leverage that, our ability to take what we know and what we can hang onto and leverage it in ways that allow us to satisfy our current goal.
Peter Doolittle: How your “working memory” makes sense of the world | TED Talk
Working memory is often impaired in ADHD.
Why I Can’t Remember Things — How ADHD Affects Working Memory – YouTube
So how can we help people with ADHD make important
information physical in order to overcome this working memory problem. One solution, of course, is to offload the working memory.Make Important Information Physical
People with ADHD don’t have adequate working memory.
- So, they cannot do what they know.
- When you can’t hold information in mind, it creates a performance disorder. It is not a problem of knowing what to do but DOING it. The goal is to help them show what they know
- Skill training will not address this problem – that is just conveying more knowledge
- Accommodations must be at “the point of performance” — that place in the natural setting where that knowledge is critical to utilize
- This requires using prosthetic devices or “scaffolding” to help them recall and use what they know
What to do about it?
- Off-load the content in working memory on to other storage devices including paper
- Use sticky notes, cards, cues, and other ways of physically representing information in that setting to help guide their behavior
- Digital recording devices may help but low-tech paper journals & notes are better than high-tech solutions
- Use pictures and images about the task and goal to help keep focused on it. (look for picture sequences on the Internet for many routine tasks)
- Draw simple pictures with arrows connecting them showing the sequence of steps to follow
More Help for Working Memory
Working Memory Isn’t Working in ADHD: What to Do – YouTube
- Make important rules or other reminders and information physical using lists, picture sequences, etc. in situations where it is important for them to remember something
- As one gets older into adulthood, encourage the use of “do lists” (notes to self) and self-talk during tasks
- Rehearse “when-then” plans in a situation to help prime their recall of what they are to do the next time they are in that situation.
- You can even write these plans down on a file card and keep it in that work area to refer to the next time they do that task.
I always have a notepad with me. Either it’s my notes on my phone or I have now super note. I’ve always got post notes, sticky notes, paper, and pen.
Why People With ADHD Struggle to remember Things – YouTube
Further reading,
