Managing working memory loads in the

classroom and the importance of broader

cognitive dimensions that impede learning

Dr Joni Holmes
Head of the Centre for Attention, Learning and Memory
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge

International Thinking Skills Conference, 12th June 2018

Overview

• Introduction to working memory

• Working memory and learning
• Characteristics of children with working memory problems
• Supporting children with working memory difficulties
• CALM: Importance of other cognitive abilities for learning
Introduction to memory
Different kinds of memory

Procedural memory
• Learned skills
• Lasts: lifetime, once skill is established
• Examples: writing, riding a bike
Different kinds of memory

Semantic memory
• Facts, knowledge
• Lasts: a lifetime, if used sufficiently frequently
• Example: knowing that Paris is the capital of France
Different kinds of memory

Autobiographical memory
• Stored facts and significant events from your life
• Lasts: a lifetime
• Examples: first day at school, your wedding day
Different kinds of memory

Episodic memory
• Records details of particular experiences
• Lasts: up to several days
• Examples: Remembering breakfast this morning, or where
you parked the car
Different kinds of memory

Working memory
• Store information over the short-term
• Lasts: seconds only
• Example: following instructions such as
“When you pass the church on the left, turn immediately
right and take the second left”
Working memory: Key features

• Capacity to hold material in mind and manipulate as

necessary for brief period

• Mental workspace

• Limited in capacity

• Catastrophic loss
Working memory: Development

• Working memory ability increases steadily with age

between 4 and 14 years

• Huge differences in working memory ability between

children of the same age
Mean scores on working memory test as a
function of age, with 10th & 90th centiles
20.00

18.00

16.00

14.00

12.00
Mean score

10.00

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Age in years
Mean scores on working memory test as a
function of age, with 10th & 90th centiles
20.00

18.00

16.00

14.00

12.00
Mean score

10.00

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Age in years
WM and Developmental
Disorders
• Deficits in WM are a common feature in many acquired and genetic
developmental disorders of learning

• ADHD (Martinussen & Tannock, 2006)

• Reading difficulties (Swanson, 2003)
• Mathematical difficulties (Geary et al., 2004)
• Specific Language Impairment (Archibald & Gathercole, 2007)
• Dyslexia (Jeffries & Everatt, 2003, 2004)
• Down syndrome (Jarrold, Baddeley & Hewes, 1999)
• Williams syndrome (Jarrold, Baddeley, Hewes & Phillips, 2001)
Working memory and
learning
Links between working memory and
learning in school

Working memory ability is associated with:

• Baseline assessments

• Key stages 1, 2 and 3

• Learning difficulties
Baseline assessments

• Assessed within 6 weeks of school entry

• Working memory skills were strongly associated baseline
assessments of
• reading
• writing
• mathematics

• Excellent predictor of KS1 maths and English levels in Yr 2

(Gathercole et al., 2003; Alloway et al., 2005)

 Key Stage 2
Mean working memory scores as a function of English and
maths attainment groups - data from 11-year olds
(Gathercole et al., 2004)

120 120

110 110

100 100
Mean score

90 Mean score 90

80 80

70 70

60 60
Low Average High Low Average High
English attainment group Maths attainment group

Note. KS3 also (Jarvis & Gathercole,

2003)
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress
More than 80% of children with poor working memory fail to
achieve expected levels of attainment in both reading and
maths
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress
• Reserved in groups (normal social integration)

Ross (6 years) is a reserved and quiet child who tends not

to volunteer responses and rarely answers direct
questions, particularly in the whole-class situation. He is
sometimes becomes more vocal when working in small
groups although he isn’t necessarily discussing the task
in hand.
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions

“Put your sheets on the green table, arrow cards in the packet,
put your pencil away and come and sit on the carpet.”
John (6 years) moved his sheets as requested, but failed to do
anything else. When he realized that the rest of the class
was seated on the carpet, he went and joined them, leaving
his arrow cards and pencil on the table.
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress, particularly in reading and maths
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems when activities involve processing and storage

Ruby’s teacher wrote sequences of numbers on the white board

that had some numbers missing. She read aloud the numbers,
and asked the class what numbers had been missed out. In
each case, there was more than one number missing. Ruby
was unable to name the missing numbers.
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress, particularly in reading and maths
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems combining processing with storage
• Place-keeping difficulties

When the teacher wrote on the board Monday 11th November and,
underneath, The Market, which was the title of the piece of
work, Nathan lost his place in the laborious attempt to copy the
words down letter by letter, writing moNemarket.
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress, particularly in reading and maths
• Normal social integration
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems combining processing with storage
• Place-keeping difficulties
• Short attention span and distractibility
“he’s in a world of his own”
“he doesn’t listen to a word I say”
“she’s always day-dreaming”
“with him, it’s in one ear and out of the other”
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory
• Poor academic progress, particularly in reading and maths
• Normal social integration
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems combining processing with storage
• Place-keeping difficulties
• Short attention span and distractibility

Adam (5 years) struggles to maintain attention, particularly during

whole-class teaching when the pupils join together on the carpet.
Hence, he sits directly in front of the teacher and is frequently
prompted to sit correctly and to pay attention as he regularly fidgets,
looks around the classroom and distracts other children near him.
 ADHD:
DSM-IV symptoms of inattention
At least 6 of the following:
• Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless
mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities
• Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities
• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
• Often does not follow instructions and fails to finish schoolwork,
chores, or duties in the workplace
• Often has trouble organizing activities
• Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot
of mental effort for a long period of time
• Often loses things needed for tasks and activities
• Is often easily distracted
• Is often forgetful in daily activities
 Symptoms displayed by children with poor
working memory (in red)
 Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless
mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities
 Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities
 Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
 Often does not follow instructions and fails to finish schoolwork,
chores, or duties in the workplace
 Often has trouble organizing activities
 Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot
of mental effort for a long period of time
 Often loses things needed for tasks and activities
 Is often easily distracted
 Is often forgetful in daily activities

Gathercole & Alloway (2008), Gathercole, Alloway, Elliott, Kirkwood , Holmes &
Hilton (2008)
 ADHD:
DSM-IV symptoms of hyperactivity/
impulsivity
At least 6 of the following:
 Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
 Often gets up from seat when remaining in seat is expected
 Often runs about or climbs when and where it is not appropriate
(adolescents or adults may feel very restless)
 Often has trouble playing or enjoying leisure activities quietly
 Is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor"
 Often talks excessively
 Often blurts out answers before questions have been finished
 Often has trouble waiting one's turn
 Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations
or games)
Comparing children with ADHD and low working
memory

Working memory Executive function

age-typical
Holmes et al (2014)
deficit range
Comparing children with ADHD and low working
memory

Teacher ratings of behaviour

age-typical

elevated

Holmes et al (2014)
 Characteristics of children with poor
working memory

• SUMMARY:

• Poor academic progress, particularly in reading and maths

• Normal social integration
• Reserved in groups
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems combining processing with storage
• Place-keeping difficulties
• Short attention span and distractibility, but not
hyperactive/impulsive
Why do children with poor
WM struggle to learn?

• Learning is a step-by-step process, based on successes in

individual learning activities.

• Children with WM impairments often fail in the classroom

because the WM loads of each activity are excessive for them.

• WM failure leads to inattentive behaviour, simply because the

child forgets what s/he is doing.

• This leads to frequent lost learning opportunities, and

consequently slow rates of learning
 Supporting children with
working memory problems
Intervention

• 2 approaches

• Classroom-based support

• Working memory training

1. Classroom-based support

Reduce WM overload
Elements of good teaching practice

•Be aware of the warning signs of WM failure

•Monitor the child
•Reduce amount of information to be stored
•Reduce difficulty of processing
•Be prepared to re-present important information
•Encourage the use of memory aids
•Help the child to use strategies
1. Classroom-based support:
Evaluation
• Teachers say:
• relatively easy to implement as they can work with existing
curriculum activities
• enabled them to understand that many task failures are due to
forgetting
• the child benefits from working within own capacity, with greater
rates of task success

For more information:

Gathercole SE & Alloway TP (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for
teachers. Sage Publishing

Elliott, J., Gathercole, S.E., Alloway, T.P., Holmes, J., & Kirkwood, H. (2010). An
Evaluation of a Classroom-Based Intervention to Help Overcome Working Memory
Difficulties and Improve Long-Term Academic Achievement. Journal of Cognitive
Education and Psychology, 9, 227-250
2. Working memory training

• Computerised memory training program

• Game-style environment designed to train working memory
• Train on working memory tasks for 25 sessions over a 6-8 week
period
• Adaptive: individual works at span level
WM training highlights

Improvements on untrained working memory tasks

WM training highlights

Enduring changes in brain activity

Functional activity in fronto-parietal networks (Klingberg,

2010)

Connectivity of attentional and sensory processing

networks (Astle et al., 2015, 2016)
 WM training highlights

No reliable benefits of training for:

•reading
•maths
•attentional symptoms of ADHD
•IQ

•To be effective may need more than training alone

• Embedded in everyday learning activities that place demands on
WM (Holmes & Dunning, 2017)

• Practice in applying newly developed strategies

 Importance of broader
cognitive dimensions for
learning
 Causes of learning difficulties
• Previous studies
• diagnostic group (ADHD, SLI)
• clinical /community samples strict inclusion criteria
• focus on one cognitive domain (e.g. WM)

• Limitations

Common: complex, co-occurring

Centre for Attention, Learning & Memory established in September
2014 (750 children to date)

•Recruited children experiencing difficulties: from schools,

educational psychologists, mental health services, clinical
psychologists, paediatricians, speech and language therapists

•Assessed cognition, learning, brain structure, genes

•Asked: (diagnoses aside) What dimensions of cognition, learning,

behaviour & brain structure distinguish these children?
 Domains

LEARNING
C Attention
O
Episodic memory
G
N Executive functions
I Phonological processing
Risks T
& I Processing speed
causal O Nonverbal reasoning
factors N
Short term and working memory
BEHAVIOUR Executive functions, attention, communication, mental health

BRAIN Structural MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, resting-state

GENES Saliva
 Education CAMHS & SLT
n=447 (156) Paediatrics n=36 (15)
n=256 (61)

Referred to CALM n=739 (232)

Current sample n=650 (203)

Education: n=390 (134)

CAMHS & Paediatrics: n= 228 (55)
SLT: n=32 (14)
 Dimensions so far …..

Cognition Behaviour Learning

Phonological Literacy, language

Executive/ spatial Inattention

(incl WM) Maths

? Hyperactivity* Social/ pragmatic

communication

*Hawkins et al. (2015): dimension of hyperactivity and social pragmatic communication

problems within and beyond ADHD, Brain Sciences, 6, 50
Summary

• Poor working memory places a child at high risk of poor

academic progress

• Both classroom management and intensive training may be able

to help …..

• … but more research is needed to develop interventions that

can improve everyday functioning and classroom learning

• Need to consider other cognitive abiltiies too

 Thank you
Further questions, email: joni.holmes@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

Information about the clinic: http://calm.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/