Working memory and long-term memory

Step 1 Warm-up recall

From M1.L1: name the stage that fails if you cannot find a stored fact.

Your answer

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Step 2 Learning goal

By the end of this lesson you can:

• describe working memory and its limits (Foundation);
• explain how knowledge in long-term memory eases the load (Core);
• apply the idea to study (Core).

Step 3 A familiar example

Try to multiply 47 by 6 in your head while reciting a phone number. It is hard because both tasks compete for the same small mental workspace.

Step 4 Clear explanation

Working memory is the small, short-lived workspace where you hold and manipulate information. Models such as that of Baddeley and Hitch (1974) describe it as a system with limited capacity, separate from the large, lasting store of long-term memory.

Two consequences follow. First, difficult new material overloads working memory quickly, so learning it in small steps works better than all at once. Second, what you already know changes the load. An expert sees a chess position or a page of code as a few meaningful groups, while a novice sees many separate pieces. Grouping items into meaningful units is called chunking.

For study this means: begin with the foundations, present one new idea at a time, and build the knowledge that later makes harder material easy. See the encyclopedia entry on working memory.

Step 5 Worked example (4 marks)

A student finds a lecture on a new topic overwhelming. Suggest changes.

1. Cause: many new ideas at once overload working memory. (1 mark)
2. Change: pre-read definitions so that terms are in long-term memory. (1 mark)
3. Change: study one idea at a time and test it before adding the next. (1 mark)
4. Aim: turn separate pieces into chunks. (1 mark)

Step 6 Learner practice (instant-marked)

Step 7 Recap

• Working memory is limited; long-term memory is large and lasting.
• Chunking and prior knowledge reduce the load.
• Study in small steps, foundations first.

Step 8 Exit ticket (ungraded)

Name one topic you find hard, and one foundation you could strengthen first.

Your answer

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Step 9 Go further (Extension)

Try to learn a ten-digit number by chunking it into groups, and notice how chunking helps.