Working Memory Underpins Cognitive Development, Learning, and Education

 The subject of the article is mechanisms of working memory concept and basically assesses its conceptual development and historical roots.  The article then dives into exploration of working memory improvement in regard to the cognitive development, the role played by memory in learning process and possible effects of working memory. It also partly examines the effects of working memory development for adults and children’s education.  The articles also uses the work by various researchers on working memory training for improving education and  learning and the need  to adjust learning materials for  enhancing learning and education using the abilities of learner’s working memory.  Specifically the article reviews the early research on working memory in order to explain this concept, and how different researchers held different definition of working memory. The author explores the roles and limits of working memory as described by various researchers in early history and compares with the description of recent researchers.  The working memory is presented as a common concept, and which has attracted many investigators who try to explain the role of working memory in the learning process.  Their contributions to understanding working memory and learning is discussed: George Miller explored limitations on number of times a person can hold items in immediate memory; Donald Broadbent brought the discussion from behavioral error into cognitive psychology; Hitch and Baddeley discussed short-terms memory and phonological processing; crown concentrated on how a person represents what he knows and what he does not know regarding information processing (Cowan, 2014). Recent researchers emphasize refreshing of stored items using attentions, which takes time regardless of whether they are verbal or nonverbal. The article concludes that working memory consists of memory itself, control skills for information management and cognitive information processing. Working memory limitations knowledge has been theoretically discussed but uncertainty on the same continues.

 The author of this article discussed the concept of working memory using various articles on historical understanding of this idea. The research articles are used for reviewing and analyzing the role of working memory in learning and education and its limitations. The methods were used thoroughly to explore the historical and recent research works that has informed the understanding of this concept especially in relation to the learning process and education in children and adults. The aim of the author was to marry the findings of the articles and come up with one article discussing the concept, its development and application in the learning process.  The findings of the article explains that working memory consist of the memory itself, control skills for managing information and the cognitive information processing. In addition, the uncertainty still exists about the working memory limitations in terms of information processing speed, holding capacity, information retention duration before it expires and various kinds of interference components that relate to long-term memory (Cowan, 2014).  These issues should be considered for learning process and education as important in cognitive psychology and development.  Considering the working memory limitations for readers and listeners can help in enhancing the writing and lecturing styles of a person.

The study assists in understanding working memory as a cognitive system with limitations on capacity for holding information, processing the information and retrieving of such information. It offers further lessons on reasoning capacity of a person based on their memory, both short-term and long-term.  In terms of a person’s behavior especially in the learning setting, the information discussed enhances the understanding of a memory capacity and how training can be done to achieve better education outcomes. The information is important in helping one to understand how controlling skills can be used manage information and how memory limitations restricts our understanding capability. In addition, the study discusses the effects of improving working memory through training which is important in making executive decisions. A person’s cognitive ability can be related to the capacity and limitation of his or her working memory, while training may improve the performance of an individual in terms of remembrance and in performance of various tasks. 

The study also relates to the field of education given that it discusses the role of working memory in the learning process, the cognitive psychology and development especially for children. By discussing the development of working memory concept, the article highlights how various researchers have defined it and how it has been improved with time. More crucial is the understanding of the impact of memory capacity of learners and how it affects their learning ability. There is need to adjust learning materials so that they fit the learner’s working capabilities and hence, improve their education and learning outcomes. Understanding the limitations of a learners working memory is important especially when monitoring their performance, hence, the learner’s failure can be attributed to such limitations. In the education field, understanding the reasons for the learners’ performance and such relate to working memory can be a basis of improving their performance. Through this, one can help readers or listeners.

Reference

Cowan, N. (2014). Working memory underpins cognitive development, learning, and education. Educational Psychology Review, 26(2), 197-223.