Peter Doolittle: How your "working memory" makes sense of the world
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging talk, the speaker explores the concept of working memory, its limitations, and its significance in daily life. They demonstrate how working memory capacity affects our ability to process information and communicate effectively. Through interactive tasks, the speaker challenges the audience's working memory and emphasizes the importance of strategies like immediate processing, repetition, elaboration, and organization to enhance memory retention and learning. The talk concludes with a powerful message: to truly live and learn, we must actively process our experiences.
Takeaways
- 🚶 Walking and multitasking: The script starts with a story about walking and observing someone who can't text and walk at the same time, highlighting the limitations of multitasking.
- 🧠 Working memory defined: It is the part of consciousness we are aware of at any given time, essential for daily functioning and cannot be turned off.
- 🔑 Four components of working memory: It allows us to store immediate experiences, retrieve knowledge from long-term memory, mix and process information in relation to our current goals.
- 🎯 Current goals in working memory: These are typically mundane, immediate objectives, like getting a cookie or entering a hotel room, not long-term aspirations.
- 📈 High working memory capacity benefits: People with high working memory capacity tend to excel in storytelling, standardized tests, writing ability, and reasoning.
- 🧐 Working memory capacity test: The script involves a test where participants hold onto five words while performing other tasks to demonstrate the capacity and limitations of working memory.
- 🥜 Limitations of working memory: It is limited in capacity, duration, and focus, typically allowing us to remember about four things for a short period.
- 🔍 Impact of working memory on daily life: It affects our ability to communicate, problem-solve, and perform everyday tasks, and can lead to forgetfulness if not managed properly.
- 💡 Strategies to improve working memory: The script suggests strategies like immediate processing, repetition, elaboration, imagery, organization, and support to enhance working memory capacity.
- 📚 Importance of processing information: The key takeaway is that we learn what we process; if we don't process life, we aren't truly living it, emphasizing the importance of active engagement with experiences.
- 👏 Encouragement to live life: The speaker ends with an encouragement to live life to the fullest by actively processing experiences through our working memory.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the speaker's presentation?
-The main topic of the presentation is working memory, its components, capacity, and the strategies to effectively utilize and enhance it.
What are the four basic components of working memory as described in the script?
-The four basic components of working memory are the ability to store immediate experiences, the capacity to pull in knowledge from long-term memory, the capability to mix and process information in light of current goals, and the ability to leverage this information to satisfy those goals.
What are some of the positive effects associated with high working memory capacity?
-People with high working memory capacity tend to be good storytellers, perform well on standardized tests, have high levels of writing ability, and are capable of high-level reasoning.
What is the significance of the word exercise the speaker conducts with the audience?
-The word exercise is designed to demonstrate the limitations of working memory capacity and how easily information can be lost when attention is divided or distracted.
How many words does the speaker ask the audience to remember and what are they?
-The speaker asks the audience to remember five words: tree, highway, mirror, Saturn, and electrode.
What is the purpose of the tasks given during the word exercise?
-The purpose of the tasks is to distract the audience and show how working memory can be affected when performing multiple tasks simultaneously.
What is the typical retention rate of the audience after performing the tasks in the word exercise?
-Typically, less than half of the audience can still remember all five words after performing the tasks, with retention rates ranging from two or three words to all five.
What are some strategies mentioned in the script to improve working memory capacity?
-The strategies mentioned include immediate and repeated processing of information, practicing, elaborative and illustrative thinking, using imagery, and organizing information for better understanding and support.
Why is it important to process information immediately and repeatedly according to the script?
-Processing information immediately and repeatedly is important because it helps to consolidate the information in working memory, making it easier to recall and apply later.
How does the speaker suggest using imagery to enhance working memory?
-The speaker suggests using imagery by visualizing concepts or information in one's mind, which can make abstract ideas more concrete and memorable.
What is the final take-home message about working memory capacity from the speaker?
-The final take-home message is that what we process, we learn, emphasizing the importance of actively engaging with information to truly learn and live life to the fullest.
Outlines
📱 Distracted Walking and Working Memory
The speaker begins by recounting an experience of walking down a sidewalk with a group, where one person's distraction by texting led to a discussion on working memory. Working memory is described as the active part of our consciousness that allows us to store immediate experiences and knowledge, mix it with long-term memory, and process it in light of our current goals. The speaker introduces the concept of working memory capacity, which is the ability to leverage this memory effectively, and associates it with positive attributes such as storytelling, standardized test performance, writing ability, and reasoning. The audience is then engaged in a working memory exercise involving holding onto five words while performing other tasks, illustrating the limits and importance of working memory in daily life.
🧠 Strategies for Enhancing Working Memory Capacity
The second paragraph delves into the limitations of working memory, such as its limited capacity, duration, and focus, typically allowing us to remember about four items for a short period. The speaker humorously illustrates common scenarios where working memory fails us, like forgetting why we entered a room. To overcome these limitations, several strategies are suggested: immediate and repeated processing of information, practicing and discussing new knowledge, elaborative and illustrative thinking, using imagery to enhance memory, and organizing information to make sense of it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of these strategies in an information-rich environment and concludes with the message that processing information is key to learning and living life fully.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Working Memory
💡Capacity
💡Multitasking
💡Long-term Memory
💡Current Goal
💡Storytelling
💡Standardized Tests
💡Strategies
💡Information Overload
💡Elaborative Rehearsal
💡Imagery
💡Organization
💡Support
Highlights
The importance of working memory in daily life and its limitations were discussed.
Working memory is the part of consciousness we are aware of at any given time.
Working memory has four basic components: storing immediate experiences, knowledge, reaching back into long-term memory, and processing information in light of current goals.
Working memory capacity is the ability to leverage immediate experiences and knowledge to satisfy current goals.
People with high working memory capacity tend to excel in storytelling, standardized tests, writing ability, and reasoning.
An interactive exercise was conducted to demonstrate the limitations of working memory, involving remembering five words while performing other tasks.
The average working memory capacity is about four items, lasting for 10 to 20 seconds, which can be improved through processing and application.
Working memory plays a crucial role in communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and everyday tasks.
The limitations of working memory include its capacity, duration, and focus, with the average person remembering about four things at a time.
Strategies to improve working memory include immediate and repeated processing of experiences, practice, elaboration, use of imagery, organization, and support.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of processing life as it happens to make the most of our working memory capacity.
Practicing and repeating information helps to solidify it in working memory.
Elaborative and illustrative thinking, relating new knowledge to all aspects of our existence, makes it more meaningful.
Using imagery to represent information can take advantage of our natural inclination towards visual learning.
Organization helps structure knowledge and experiences in a way that aids in making meaning and remembering.
Supporting learning through questions, organizational charts, or guiding images can enhance understanding and retention.
The key takeaway is that processing information leads to learning, and not processing life means not truly living it.
Transcripts
So yesterday, I was out in the street
in front of this building,
and I was walking down the sidewalk,
and I had company, several of us,
and we were all abiding by the rules
of walking down sidewalks.
We're not talking each other. We're facing forward.
We're moving.
When the person in front of me slows down.
And so I'm watching him, and he slows down,
and finally he stops.
Well, that wasn't fast enough for me,
so I put on my turn signal, and I walked around him,
and as I walked, I looked to see what he was doing,
and he was doing this.
He was texting,
and he couldn't text and walk at the same time.
Now we could approach this
from a working memory perspective
or from a multitasking perspective.
We're going to do working memory today.
Now, working memory
is that part of our consciousness that we are
aware of at any given time of day.
You're going it right now.
It's not something we can turn off.
If you turn it off, that's called a coma, okay?
So right now, you're doing just fine.
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.
Now working memory capacity
has a fairly long history,
and it's associated with a lot of positive effects.
People with high working memory capacity
tend to be good storytellers.
They tend to solve and do well on standardized tests,
however important that is.
They're able to have high levels of writing ability.
They're also able to reason at high levels.
So what we're going to do here is play a little bit with some of that.
So I'm going to ask you to perform a couple tasks,
and we're going to take your working memory out for a ride.
You up for that? Okay.
I'm going to give you five words,
and I just want you to hang on to them.
Don't write them down. Just hang on to them.
Five words.
While you're hanging on to them, I'm going to ask you to answer three questions.
I want to see what happens with those words.
So here's the words:
tree,
highway,
mirror,
Saturn
and electrode.
So far so good?
Okay. What I want you to do
is I want you to tell me what the answer is
to 23 times eight.
Just shout it out.
(Mumbling) (Laughter)
In fact it's -- (Mumbling) -- exactly. (Laughter)
All right. I want you to take out your left hand
and I want you to go, "One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, 10."
It's a neurological test, just in case you were wondering.
All right, now what I want you to do
is to recite the last five letters
of the English alphabet backwards.
You should have started with Z.
(Laughter)
All right. How many people here are still pretty sure
you've got all five words?
Okay. Typically we end up with about less than half,
right, which is normal. There will be a range.
Some people can hang on to five.
Some people can hang on to 10.
Some will be down to two or three.
What we know is this is really important to the way we function, right?
And it's going to be really important here at TED
because you're going to be exposed to so many different ideas.
Now the problem that we have
is that life comes at us,
and it comes at us very quickly,
and what we need to do is to take that amorphous
flow of experience and somehow
extract meaning from it
with a working memory
that's about the size of a pea.
Now don't get me wrong, working memory is awesome.
Working memory allows us
to investigate our current experience
as we move forward.
It allows us to make sense of the world around us.
But it does have certain limits.
Now working memory is great for allowing us to communicate.
We can have a conversation,
and I can build a narrative around that
so I know where we've been and where we're going
and how to contribute to this conversation.
It allows us to problem-solve, critical think.
We can be in the middle of a meeting,
listen to somebody's presentation, evaluate it,
decide whether or not we like it,
ask follow-up questions.
All of that occurs within working memory.
It also allows us to go to the store
and allows us to get milk and eggs and cheese
when what we're really looking for
is Red Bull and bacon. (Laughter)
Gotta make sure we're getting what we're looking for.
Now, a central issue with working memory
is that it's limited.
It's limited in capacity, limited in duration,
limited in focus.
We tend to remember about four things.
Okay? It used to be seven,
but with functional MRIs, apparently it's four,
and we were overachieving.
Now we can remember those four things
for about 10 to 20 seconds
unless we do something with it,
unless we process it, unless we apply it to something,
unless we talk to somebody about it.
When we think about working memory,
we have to realize that this limited capacity
has lots of different impacts on us.
Have you ever walked from one room to another
and then forgotten why you're there?
You do know the solution to that, right?
You go back to that original room. (Laughter)
Have you ever forgotten your keys?
You ever forgotten your car?
You ever forgotten your kids?
Have you ever been involved in a conversation,
and you realize that the conversation to your left
is actually more interesting? (Laughter)
So you're nodding and you're smiling,
but you're really paying attention to this one over here,
until you hear that last word go up,
and you realize,
you've been asked a question. (Laughter)
And you're really hoping the answer is no,
because that's what you're about to say.
All of that talks about working memory,
what we can do and what we can't do.
We need to realize that working memory
has a limited capacity,
and that working memory capacity itself is how we negotiate that.
We negotiate that through strategies.
So what I want to do is talk a little bit about a couple of strategies here,
and these will be really important
because you are now in an information target-rich environment
for the next several days.
Now the first part of this that we need to think about
and we need to process our existence, our life,
immediately and repeatedly.
We need to process what's going on
the moment it happens, not 10 minutes later,
not a week later, at the moment.
So we need to think about, well, do I agree with him?
What's missing? What would I like to know?
Do I agree with the assumptions?
How can I apply this in my life?
It's a way of processing what's going on
so that we can use it later.
Now we also need to repeat it. We need to practice.
So we need to think about it here.
In between, we want to talk to people about it.
We're going to write it down, and when you get home,
pull out those notes and think about them
and end up practicing over time.
Practice for some reason became a very negative thing.
It's very positive.
The next thing is, we need to think elaboratively
and we need to think illustratively.
Oftentimes, we think that we have to relate new knowledge to prior knowledge.
What we want to do is spin that around.
We want to take all of our existence
and wrap it around that new knowledge
and make all of these connections and it becomes more meaningful.
We also want to use imagery. We are built for images.
We need to take advantage of that.
Think about things in images,
write things down that way.
If you read a book, pull things up.
I just got through reading "The Great Gatsby,"
and I have a perfect idea of what he looks like
in my head, so my own version.
The last one is organization and support.
We are meaning-making machines. It's what we do.
We try to make meaning out of everything that happens to us.
Organization helps, so we need to structure
what we're doing in ways that make sense.
If we are providing knowledge and experience,
we need to structure that.
And the last one is support.
We all started as novices.
Everything we do is an approximation of sophistication.
We should expect it to change over time. We have to support that.
The support may come in asking people questions,
giving them a sheet of paper that has an organizational chart on it
or has some guiding images,
but we need to support it.
Now, the final piece of this, the take-home message
from a working memory capacity standpoint is this:
what we process, we learn.
If we're not processing life, we're not living it.
Live life. Thank you.
(Applause)
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