Why do we keep forgetting?
See 'Brain’s storage bin limited to five items, study says' from page E4Lesson by Boon Boonprayoon
What is a ‘working memory’? There are two basic categories of memory—long-term memory and short-term, or what we now call ‘working’ memory. Working memory is the ability to remember events in the recent past, for example, the names of someone you met at the party last night. It is a key indicator of your ability in learning and IQ. I remember reading that ‘working memory’ is often challenged by stress, illness, and aging. That happens to people in general.
Today, however, this article from Reuters talks about ‘working memory’ of children with learning difficulties in particular. These children have difficulties processing the information they learn and that results in their inabilty to even remember things they have just read.
Read more to find out if there any concrete evidence of the cause of such problems and if there is any solution for them. What is more interesting about this article is that the writer also mentions about working memory among adults. Why do we keep forgetting something even when we try hard not to?
category – a group of people or things with particular features in common ประเภท
key – most important ที่สำคัญมาก
indicator – a sign that shows you what something is like or how a situation is changing เครื่องบ่งชี้
aging – the process of growing old ความชราภาพ
learning difficulty – the Problems with memory occurring in the area of short-term memory, which can make it difficult to learn new material without many more repetitions than is usual.
บทความนี้แบ่งออกเป็น 2 part ในครึ่งแรกนั้น ผู้เขียนอธิบายว่า working memory คืออะไร เกิดขึ้นด้วยสาเหตุใด และ กับคนกลุ่มใดบ้าง ผู้เขียนได้มีการให้ตัวอย่างที่ชัดเจนและเข้าใจง่าย ในการอ่านครั้งแรก ดิฉันขอแนะนำให้คุณอ่านเพื่อจับใจความสำคัญก่อน ยังไม่ต้องลงรายละเอียด
การอ่านจับใจความสำคัญทำอย่างไร ? ในแต่ละย่อหน้าผู้เขียนจะพูดถึงสิ่งที่สำคัญที่สุด ส่วนสิ่งอื่นๆ ที่ถูกรวมไว้ในย่อหน้านั้น เป็นคำอธิบาย ตัวอย่างและรายละเอียดเท่านั้น
ส่วนที่ 2 ของบทความ เป็นการพูดถึงรายละเอียดของ working memory ในกลุ่มเด็กที่มีปัญหาในการเรียน ในส่วนนี้ ผู้เขียนให้ตัวอย่างและได้อ้างอิงถึงการทดลองในการแก้ปัญหา หรือลดข้อบกพร่องในการเรียนรู้และจดจำของเด็กกลุ่มนี้
เมื่ออ่านและทำแบบฝึกหัดท้ายเรื่องแล้ว ดิฉันอยากแนะนำให้คุณเขียนสรุปสั้น ว่า working memory คืออะไร สาเหตุของการหลงลืมของคนในแต่ละวัยนั้นมีอะไรบ้าง ส่งงานเขียนของคุณมาให้ตรวจแก้ไขได้ที่ missboonbkk@gmail.com ค่ะ
There is further information on 'working memory' here.
Brain’s storage bin limited to five items, study says
By Julie SteenhuysenReuter
Defects in working memory -- the brain's temporary storage bin -- may explain why one child cannot read her history book and another gets lost in algebra, new research suggests.
As many as 10 percent of school age children may suffer from poor working memory, British researchers said in a report last week, yet the problem remains rarely identified.
"You can think of working memory as a pure measure of your child's potential," Dr. Tracey Alloway of Britain's Durham University said in a telephone interview.
"Some psychologists consider working memory to be the new IQ because we find that working memory is the single most important predictor of learning," Alloway said.
Many children with poor working memory are considered lazy or dim. But Alloway said with early identification and memory training, many of these underachievers can improve.
Working memory allows people to hold and manipulate a few items in their minds, such as a telephone number. Alloway compares working memory to a box.
For adults, the basic box size is thought to be three to five items. People who have more than that on a mental grocery list are likely to forget something.
"Since there is this limit, it is important to put in the right thing. Irrelevant information will clutter up working memory," Nelson Cowan, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Missouri, said in a telephone interview.
The question many researchers are struggling with is how to help people with this problem, which appears to be closely tied with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
"In children with learning difficulties, it becomes a huge issue, especially around middle school where the demands on working memory grow dramatically," said Dr. Mel Levine, co-founder of All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit institute in Durham, North Carolina, that studies learning differences.
storage - the process of keeping information, etc. on a computer; the way it is kept กระบวนการบันทึกข้อมูล
defect - a fault in something or in the way it has been made which means that it is not perfect ข้อบกพร่อง
temporary - lasting or intended to last or be used only for a short time; not permanent ชั่วคราว
remian - to continue to be something; to be still in the same state or condition คงสภาพ คงอยู่
potential - that can develop into something or be developed in the future; possible: ศักยภาพ
single - only one หนึ่งเดียว
predictor - something that can show what will happen in the future เครื่องบ่งชี้ ตัวกำหนด
dim - not intelligent โง่เขลา
underachiever - a person who can do less well than you could do, especially in school work ผู้ที่เรียนไม่เก่ง
manipulate - to control or use something in a skilful way ควบคุมอย่างชำนาญ
grocery list - the to do list--it is used as to compare to the list of things you need to do, to get when you go shopping รายการที่ต้องทำ
irrelevant - not important to or connected with a situation ไม่เกี่ยวเนื่องกัน
cognitive - connected with mental processes of understanding เกี่ยวกับกระบวนการการรับรู้
LOST IN THE MIDDLE
Levine said working memory allows a reader to remember what is at the beginning of the page when reaching the end of the page. Kids with trouble with active working memory get lost in the middle.
"One little girl told me recently, 'Every time I read a sentence it erases the one that was before it,"' Levine said in a telephone interview. "That's a perfect example of an active working memory dysfunction."
Memory training may help improve working memory. "The claims that are being made are that all of the attention-related aspects of processing and working memory can be trained," Cowan said.
Alloway's tool for teachers to assess working memory capacity in children as early as age 4 has been used in 35 schools across Britain.
Levine's institute trains teachers through a program called Schools Attuned, which is working with several thousand schools across the United States, Canada and Europe.
While he is not sure working memory can be expanded, Levine said children can be taught ways to function better in school.
For the girl with the reading problem, Levine's solution was for her to own a set of school books so she could underline key points when she reads. Then she can read those points into a digital tape recorder and play them back.
"While it did not fix her problem, it prevents it from causing too much trouble," he said. "She was very interested because she was telling her mother she was the stupidest kid in her class.
"Now she's telling people, 'I've got to work on expanding my active working memory,"' he said.
[get] lost - unable to find your way; not knowing where you are หลงทาง ในที่นี้หมายถึง ความจำหายไป
aspect - a particular part or feature of a situation, an idea, a problem, etc.; a way in which it may be considered แง่มุม
assess - to make a judgement about the nature or quality of somebody or something ประเมิณผล
expand - to become greater in size, number or importance; to make something greater in size, number or importance เพิ่มพูน
underline - to emphasize or show that something is important or true เน้นความสำคัญ
key point - a thing that makes you able to understand or achieve something ประเด็นสำคัญ
Exercise:
1. What is working memory?
2. What is its effect on the learning ability of a child?
3. Describe in detail what it is like when a child has a problem with working memory.
4. How many items can an adult generally remember about the recent past?
5. What is the solution for children with an active working memory dysfunction?