The term ‘working memory’ refers to the capacity to store and manipulate information in mind for brief periods of time. Working memory capacities are strongly related to learning abilities and academic progress, predicting current and subsequent scholastic attainments of children across the school years in both literacy and numeracy. Moreover, children with pervasive learning difficulties are characterised by marked impairments of working memory function that are rare in unselected samples of children. One suggestion for why working memory constrains learning is that this system acts as a bottleneck for learning in many of the individual learning episodes required to increment the acquisition of knowledge. Because low working memory children often fail to meet working memory demands of individual learning episodes, the incremental process of acquiring skill and knowledge over the school years is disrupted.

 

Early identification of poor working memory skills in individual children is clearly desirable given the links between memory abilities and learning in the classroom. This paper discusses two different tools for effectively identifying children with poor working memory skills. The first is a computerized test battery consisting of multiple tasks measuring different memory components. This tool is based on theoretical models of working memory. A second tool is a checklist for teachers based specifically on key behavioral characteristics in the classroom that children with working memory impairments exhibit. Data from children with low and average working memory skills on both these screening tools and comparisons with other standardized memory assessments (such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—IV memory scale) will be presented. Benefits of screening tools for teachers include minimal training required, high face validity, and a quick and cost effective means of alerting teachers to the warning signs of memory deficits that will impair learning will also be discussed.

AIMS

The main purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using several different tools for early identification of working memory impairments. The term ‘working memory’ refers to the capacity to store and manipulate information in mind for brief periods of time. Insight into why verbal working memory constrains learning has recently been provided by an observational study of young children identified as having very poor verbal working memory function (i.e., standard scores <85) but normal nonverbal IQ in their first year of formal schooling. These children frequently failed in learning activities that placed heavy demands on working memory. Common failures for these children with working memory impairments included forgetting lengthy instructions, place-keeping errors (e.g., missing out letters or words in a sentence), and failure to cope with simultaneous processing and storage demands. One explanation for these failures is that the concurrent storage and processing demands of the activity were beyond the working memory capacities of these children. Although in isolation, it seems likely the child would be able to meet these storage requirements without difficulty, the added processing demands increased the working memory demands and so led to memory failure. This view is supported by the fact that all the children with working memory impairments were placed in the lowest ability groups in the class.

 

Why does working memory constrain learning? One suggestion is that working memory provides a resource for the individual to integrate knowledge from long-term memory with information in temporary storage. A child with weak working memory capacities is therefore limited in their ability to perform this operation in important classroom-based activities. A related suggestion is that poor working memory skills result in pervasive learning difficulties because this system acts as a bottleneck for learning in many of the individual learning episodes required to increment the acquisition of knowledge. Because low working memory children often fail to meet working memory demands of individual learning episodes, the incremental process of acquiring skill and knowledge over the school years is disrupted.

 

Early identification of poor working memory skills in individual children is clearly desirable given the links between memory abilities and learning in the classroom. This paper discusses two different tools for effectively identifying children with poor working memory skills. The first is a computerized test battery consisting of multiple tasks measuring different memory components, the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). While routine screening has been effective in identifying children with poor working memory skills, we were interested in providing teachers with a resource to facilitate easy identification of children with working memory deficits. Previous research indicates that teachers rarely identify memory as a source of difficulty in children with working memory problems, despite their poor classroom functioning; typically, they describe them as inattentive although there was little independent evidence of attentional disorder.

 

A second tool is a checklist for teachers based specifically on key behavioral characteristics in the classroom that children with working memory impairments exhibit  (Working Memory Rating Scale, WMRS). This scale is likely to increase the chances of the detection and subsequent effective support in school for children with deficits of working memory. It also provides educators with a quick and cost effective to screen children for potential memory deficits that would impair learning.

 

METHODOLOGY

Data from 93 children with low (n=47) and average (n=46) working memory skills on the two screening tools: AWMA and the WMRS, were compared with other standardized memory assessments (such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—IV memory scale).

 

FINDINGS

Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS). Higher scores correspond with greater frequency of classroom behaviours associated with memory deficits, such as ‘Abandons activities before completion’ or ‘Does not follow classroom instructions accurately, e.g., carries out some but not all steps in an instruction’. A much larger percentage of the low working memory children achieved high scores on the checklist compared to the average working memory children. This suggests that they exhibited behaviour characteristic of memory failures during normal classroom activities.

 

As a test of the extent to which the checklist uniquely differentiated the two memory ability groups, a series of discriminant function analyses was conducted. In the first series of discriminant function analyses, all 22 questions from the checklist were included. Approximately 91.5% of the low working memory and 93.5% of the average working memory children were correctly grouped by this function. This outcome establishes that the items of the working memory checklist were effective at discriminating children in the two memory ability groups, with higher ratings typically characterising children with working memory deficits.

 

WISC-IV Memory scale. The data indicate that the average working memory group performed better in both the WISC-IV and AWMA memory tests.In order to evaluate the extent to which the WISC-IV memory tests may differentiate the low working memory group from the average working memory group, a stepwise discriminant function analysis with all of the WISC-IV memory tests (digit span forwards, digit span backwards, digit span total and letter-number sequencing) were entered. There was one significant function: digit span total entered alone, λ(1, 1, 86)=0.48, p<.001. With digit span total, 74.5% of the low memory group and 87.8% of the average memory group were correctly classified. This indicates that of the three memory tests in the WISC-IV, the total digit span score is the most reliable in discriminating low working memory children from average working memory children.

 

THEORETICAL & EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RESEARCH

The findings will have substantial impact on current educational practice, boosting early identification of children at risk of developing learning difficulties, enhancing their scholastic attainments, and facilitating their effective participation in society. As a result of early identification, children can benefit from a learning support programme aimed at promoting in educators awareness of what working memory is and the ways in which poor working memory abilities can disrupt children’s abilities to learn; restructuring learning activities to reduce excessive working memory loads; and enhancing self-efficacy of children by encouraging use of appropriate strategies to overcome memory problems.