Rush University Faculty & Student Development Lecture 2011

1. Working memory
Derek J. Stiles, Ph.D.
Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences
Student and Faculty Development
May, 2011

2. Working memory
• History
• Characteristics
• WM & CDS
• Identification & Treatment

3. Pre - 1950
Memory

4. 1959
Short-term
memory
Long-term
memory

5. 1968 – Atkinson and Shiffrin
Long-term
memory

6. 1974 – Baddeley and Hitch
Phonological loop
Visuospatial sketchpad
Central executive
Long-term
memory

7. 2003 - Baddeley
Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
loop sketchpad
Episodic
buffer
Long term memory
7

8. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Visuospatial Sketchpad
• Divided system specialized for storing and
processing visual inputs
– Spatial location
• Objects in a room
– Color, size, shape, orientation

9. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Phonological Loop
• Divided system specialized for storing and
processing verbal information
– Phonological store
• Word traces kept here
• Rapid decay
– Subvocal rehearsal mechanism
• Refreshes items in the store

10. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Interference in the PL
• Interference
– Prevents encoding/rehearsal
• Articulatory suppression effect
• Irrelevant speech effect
• Word length effect
– Disturbs rehearsal
• Phonological similarity effect
• Auditory advantage

11. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
• Recently added component
– Helps describe relationship between short-term
and long-term memory
• Chunking across modalities
– Visual plus phonological

12. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
• Defining its role
– Chunking across modalities

13. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
• Defining its role
– Chunking across modalities

14. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
• Defining its role
– Chunking across modalities

15. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
• Defining its role
– Chunking across modalities
– Interacting with long-term memory
– Interacting with semantic knowledge
• “Episodic memory”
– multiple modalities reflected

16. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Central Executive
• Flexible resource
– Attention
• Allocation
• Updating
• Division
• Sustainment
– Inhibition
• Finite resource

17. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Executive collective
Working
Attention Inhibition Shifting
Memory

18. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad

19. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Aging
• Evidence of working
memory at begins at age
3 years.
• Working memory peaks
after adolescence
• In old age, memory
maintenance and the
ability to switch between • More neurons are activated
tasks declines, but to complete executive tasks
sustained attention does in older populations
not decline.
Verhaeghen & Cerella, 2002 Schneider-Garces et al, 2010

20. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Summary: Baddeley’s model
Central executive
• Attention, inhibition, switching, resource allocation
Episodic buffer
• Synthesizes information across modalities
Visuospatial sketchpad
• Location, trajectory, visual features
Phonological loop
• Phonological storage and subvocal rehearsal mechanism

21. Central
executive
Phonological Visuospatial
Episodic buffer
loop sketchpad
Summary: Finite resources
Storage
Processing

22. Working Memory and CDS
• Language
• Hearing

23. Working memory and vocabulary
Novel speech material
+
Short term memory
Stable, long-term
phonological/lexical
representation

24. Working memory and vocabulary
• Vocabulary acquisition
– Before kindergarten working memory supports
word learning
• Children with better WM learned novel labels for toys
significantly faster than children with poorer WM
– Beyond kindergarten, the relationship weakens
• Other processes may support/inhibit word learning as
children age (e.g., use of analogy, ability to
comprehend abstract words)
Gathercole & Baddeley (1993)

25. Working memory and language
• Grammar acquisition
– 3-year olds with higher phonological loop capacity
produced longer, more syntactically-complex
spontaneous utterances.
– Better comprehension of complex sentences
• “The hippo that the lion kissed on the nose was
running into the jungle”

26. Working memory and literacy
• Short-term memory correlated to letter
knowledge
– Letter-sound association for B and F easier than
for G and H.
ounding out words
– Phonemic strings held in memory until final
phoneme deciphered to form word
– Stronger relationship with phonological store than
speech rate

27. Working memory and literacy
• Children with better
working memory could “Last night Jill walked home
identify references to through the woods.
text, or anomalies in text, There was no moonlight so Jill
from 6-7 sentences could hardly see her way.
earlier. She had just been to the movie
theater with her friends.
She walked along the path.
• The more intervening The moon was so bright that it
information, the less lit the way.
likely the earlier Jill lives at the other side of the
information will remain woods.”
activated for easy
reference.
(Oakhill, Hartt, Samols, 2005)

28. Working memory and SLI
• Many (not all) children with SLI have
concomitant WM problems
INTACT DISRUPTED
Visuospatial storage Verbal storage
Attention allocation/switching Processing speed
Inhibition
Sustained attention

29. Working memory and brain damage
• Vocabulary acquisition
– EA: Woman with brain damage
• Could not remember more than two words
• Could not repeat verbatim phonological information
– But did understand the semantics
– PV: Woman who had a stroke
• Could not repeat nonwords longer than 2-syllables
• Could not learn unfamiliar real words
– Orthographic or semantic cues helped
Martin (1993)

30. Summary
Vocabulary
• Word learning and working memory most strongly
associated before 1st grade.
Grammar
• Working memory implicated in comprehension and
production of complex syntax
Reading
• Working memory supports sounding out of words
• Working memory supports reading comprehension

31. Working memory and cochlear implants
CI NH
Slower verbal rehearsal
speed
Limited short-term
memory capacity
Poorer word repetition/
word recall
Pisoni & Cleary (2003)

32. Working memory and amplification
HA NH
Slower verbal rehearsal
speed
Limited short-term
memory capacity
Poorer word repetition/
word recall
Stiles, et al (in review)

33. Working memory and amplification
• 23 adults
– 32-87 years old
– Mild to mod-severe SNHL
• Sentence repetition across
SNR in 4 conditions
– Noise
• 2-talker babble (modulated)
• Speech-shaped
(unmodulated)
– Compression
• Fast
• Slow
Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

34. Working memory and amplification
Slow Compression/
Unmodulated Noise
Cognition Threshold Other
unmodulated noise (static) 6%
slow compression
32%
62%
threshold > working memory
Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

35. Working memory and amplification
Fast Compression/
Modulated Noise
Cognition Threshold Other
modulated noise (talking)
fast compression 39%
58%
working memory > threshold
3%
Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

36. Working memory and amplification
Fast Compression/
Participants with low Modulated Noise
working memory Cognition Threshold Other
showed greater benefit
from slow compression
39%
Participants with high 58%
working memory
showed greater benefit 3%
from fast compression
Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

37. Summary
Children with cochlear implants
• Children with CI more likely to have poorer working
memory
• May help to explain poorer word recognition
(repetition) and academic weakness
Adults with hearing aids
• In speech babble, working memory is more important
than threshold
• Fast compression times make sentence understanding
in background noise difficult for adults with poor
working memory

38. Identifying working memory problems

39. Signs of working memory problems
• Forgetting steps in a series of directions
“Put away your math book and bring your worksheet up
here, then take out your social studies book, and do the
reading and problems for chapters four and five.”
• Mistakes on sentences with complex grammar
“To save the princess, the knight fought the dragon”

40. Signs of working memory problems
• Mistakes recalling events in the right order
• Omissions in writing sentences from memory
• Mistakes following numerical patterns
• Counting by 3s

41. Characteristics of children with working memory problems
• Typically in the low ability groups in both
literacy and numeracy
• In groups, they are reserved and rarely
volunteer information
• They are aware that they struggle to
remember information.
Alloway, T.P. (2008)

42. Characteristics of children with working memory problems
• Play well with others; can make friends
• Teachers often interpret working memory
deficits as an attention problem.
• “He’s in a world of his own”
• “She doesn’t listen”
Alloway, T.P. (2008)

43. Diagnosing working memory problems
• WISC Working memory index
• Ages 6 – 16 years
• Digit span, letter-number sequencing, arithmetic
• Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Ability Test
• Numbers reversed, auditory working memory, memory
for words

44. Diagnosing working memory problems
• Working Memory Rating Scale
• 20-item screener
• Working Memory Test Batteries
– WMTB-C
– AWMA
Batteries generally include:
• Short-term memory tests
• Verbal (e.g. digit span, nonword repetition)
• Visuospatial (e.g. maze recall, serial location)
• Working memory tests
• Verbal
• Visuospatial

45. How do we support a child with
working memory problems?

46. Identifying challenges in the classroom
“Photosynthesis is
• Discourse practices
the process by which
– Classroom instruction plants, some
– Writing to dictation bacteria, and some
protistans use the
energy from sunlight
to produce sugar,
• Instructional materials
which cellular
– Complex narratives respiration converts
– Complicated syntax into ATP, the ‘fuel’
used by all living
things.”

47. Identifying challenges in the classroom
“Photosynthesis is…
• Discourse practices
.
– Classroom instruction .
– Writing to dictation .
[stuff I can’t
remember]
.
• Instructional materials
.
– Complex narratives .
– Complicated syntax …the ‘fuel’
used by all living
things.”

48. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Providing support in the classroom
• Auditory support
– Give one direction at a time
– Make directions clear, short, specific
– Repeat important parts of instructions
• Visual support
– Write instructions on chalkboard
– Keep number lines available for math
– Create checklists

49. Can working memory
be improved?

50. • Drugs
– Dopaminergic psychostimulants
– Methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin)
– Bromocriptine (Parlodel, Cycloset)
– Adrenergic psychostimulants
– Modafinil (Provigil, Alertec)
Central
executive
Phonological Episodic Visuospatial
loop buffer sketchpad

51. • Training
– scilearn.com
– cogmed.com
– Automated Working Memory Assessment
– soakyourhead.com
» (n-back task – free, online)

52. • Phonological skill development
– Practice rhyming
– Practice sounding-out unfamiliar words
• Automaticity
– Counting practice: counting by fives, etc
– Memorizing math tables
– Templates of syntactic constructions
• Temporal structures (if..then..; before, during, after)
(Boudreau et al, 2011)

53. Outcomes with Cogmed
• FMRI evidence of pre/post-training improvement
– Increased activation in parietal lobes, prefrontal
cortex
• Children with cochlear implants
– Immediate post-training and 1-month post-training
• Improvements seen in forward and backward digit span,
forward and backward spatial span, and sentence repetition
– 6-months post-training
• All but sentence repetition regressed to baseline
(Kronenberger et al, 2010)

54. Food for thought
• Be aware of disturbances in Thank you!
working memory
• Patients with stroke and brain injury
• Children with reading problems
• Children with cochlear implants
• Hearing aid patients

55. References
• Alloway, T.P. (2008). Working memory tests. Retrieved March 22, 2011.
• Alloway, T.P. (2011). Improving working memory. London: Sage Publications.
• Anderson, P. (2003). Assessment and development of executive function during childhood. Child Neuropsychology
(8), 71-82. doi:10.1076/chin.8.2.71.8724.
• Baddeley, A.D. (2007). Working memory, thought, and action. Oxford University Press.
• Beer, J., Pisoni, D.B., Kronenberger, W.G., & Geers, A.E. (2010). Executive functions of adolescents who use
cochlear implants. ASHA Leader, Dec. 21.
• Blakemore, S.-J. & Choudhury, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function
and social cognition. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (47) 296-312. doi:10.1111/j.1469-
7610.2006.01611.x.
• Boudreau, D. & Costanza-Smith, A. (2011). Assessment and treatment of working memory deficits in school-age
children: The role of the speech-language pathologist. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (42),
152-166.
• Garon, N., Bryson, S.E., & Smith, I.M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative
framework. Psychological Bulletin (134), 31-60.
• Gathercole, S.E. & Baddeley, A.D. (1993). Working memory and language. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Holmes, J., Dunning, D., & Gathercole, S. (2009). Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor
working memory in children. Developmental Science, (12), F9-F15.
• Klingberg, T. (2009). The overflowing brain. Oxford University Press.
• Kronenberger, W.G., Pisoni, D.B., Henning, S.C., Colson, B.G., & Hazzard, L.M. (2010). Working memory training for
children with cochlear implants: a pilot study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/10-0119).
• Luciana, M., Conklin, H.M., Hooper, C.J., & Yarger, R.S. (2005). The development of nonverbal working memory
and executive control processes in adolescents. Child Development (76) 697-712. doi:10.1111/j.1467-
8624.2005.00872.x.

56. References
• Lunner, T. & Sundewall-Thorén, E. (2007). Interactions between cognition, compression, and listening conditions:
Effects on speech-in-noise performance in a two-channel hearing aid. Journal of the American Academy of
Audiology, (18), 604-617. doi:10.3766/jaaa.18.7.7.
• Montgomery, J.W., Magimairaj, B.M., & Finney, M.C. (2010). Working memory and specific language impairment:
An update on the relation and perspectives on assessment and treatment. American Journal of Speech-Language
Pathology (19), 78-94. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2009/09-0028).
• Oleson, P.J., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2003). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of
working memory. Nature Neuroscience (7), 75-79.
• Paul, P.V. & Whitelaw, G.M. (2011). Hearing and Deafness. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
• Pickering, S.J. (Ed.). (2006). Working memory and education. Boston, MA: Academic Press.
• Pisoni, D.B. & Cleary, M. (2003).
• Rönnberg, J., Rudner, M., Foo, C., & Lunner, T. (2008). Cognition counts: A working memory system for ease of
language understanding (ELU). International Journal of Audiology (47), S99-S105.
• Rönnberg, J., Danielsson, H., Rudner, M., Arlinger, S., Sternang, O., Wahlin, Å., & Nilsson, L.-G. (2011). Hearing loss
is negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory but not to short-term memory. Journal of
Speech, Language, & Hearing Research (54), 705-726. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0088).
• Schneider-Garces, N.J., et al (2010). Span, CRUNCH, and beyond: working memory capacity and the aging brain.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (22), 655-669. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21230.
• Tun, P., McCoy, S., & Wingfield, A. (2009). Aging, hearing acuity, and the attentional costs of effortful listening.
Psychology of Aging (24), 761-766. doi:10.1037/a0014802.
• Verhaeghen, P. & Cerella, J. (2002). Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (26), 849-857. doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(02)00071-4.

57. 2003
Central
executive
Phonological Episodic Visuospatial
loop buffer sketchpad
Episodic long Visual
Language
term memory semantics
57

58. 1998
Focus
58

59. Working memory and hearing loss
• Ease of Language Understanding (ELU)
Explicit Processing
Speech- Sign-
specific specific
General Capacity
Multimodal
Language Input Understanding Output
Mismatch
Episodic Long-term
Buffer Match Memory
Implicit Processing
Rönnberg, et al (2008, 2011)

60. 2008
Ease of Language Understanding (ELU)
• Ease of Language Understanding (ELU)
Explicit Processing
Speech- Sign-
specific specific
General Capacity
Multimodal
Language Input Understanding Output
Mismatch
Episodic Long-term
Buffer Match Memory
Implicit Processing
60

61. Working memory and dyslexia
• 10-year-olds with dyslexia had similar working
memories to younger children matched on
reading level than age-mates.