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Running head: Working Memory Training in Children

School Based Working Memory Training: Preliminary finding of Improvement in Children’s Mathematical Performance

Panmoli Sivananthan
Psychology 107

University Canada West
December 04, 2011
(Essay 1587 words)

My topic is “Working Memory
In the textbook, it is defined on pg. 259 as follows:
Working memory, a newer understanding of Atkinson and Shiffrin’s second stage, concentrates on the active processing of information in this intermediate stage. Because we cannot possibly focus on all the information bombarding our senses at once, we shine the flashlight beam of our attention on certain incoming stimuli – often those that are novel or important. We process these incoming stimuli, along with information we retrieve from long-tem memory, in temporary working memory. Working memory associates new and old information and solves problems (Baddeley, 2001, 200; Engle, 2002).
Reference in textbook on pages R-3 & R-17
Baddeley, A.D. (2001). Is working memory still working? American Psychologist, pg 56, 849-864.
Baddeley, A.D. (2002, June). Is working memory still working? European Psychologist, 7, 85-97.
Engle, R.W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19-23.
References to the three articles of my interest:
My primary article:
Marcus, W. (2011). School Based Working Memory training: Preliminary finding of improvement in children’s mathematical performance. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, V.7.
My secondary articles:
Wilson, K.M., & Swanson, H.L. (2001). Mathematics Disabilities Due to a Domain General or a Domain Specific Working Memory Deficit. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 237.
Hitch, G.J., & McAuley, E. (1991). Working Memory in Children with Specific Arithmetical Learning Difficulties. British Journal of Psychology, 82, 375-386.
Abstracts from my Research Papers: 1. Working memory is a complex cognitive system responsible for the concurrent storage and processing of information. Given that a complex cognitive task like mental arithmetic clearly places demands on working memory, there is surprisingly little research exploring the possibility of increasing young children’s working memory capacity through systematic school-based training. This study reports the preliminary results of a working memory training program, targeting executive processes such as inhibiting unwanted information, monitoring processes, and the concurrent storage and processing of information. The finding suggest that children who received working memory training made significantly greater gains in the trained working memory task, and in a non-trained visual –spatial working memory task, the a matched control group. Moreover, the training group made significant improvements in their mathematical functioning as measured by the number of errors made in an addition task compared to the control group. These findings although preliminary, suggest that school-based measures to train working memory could have benefits in terms of improved performance in mathematics.

2. The relationship between verbal and visual spatial working memory and mathematical computation skill was examined in children and adults with and without disabilities in mathematics. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that, when partialing for the influence of reading ability, age, and gender, mathematical computation was better predicted by verbal than by visual-spatial working memory. Furthermore, the results showed that the relationship between mathematics ability and working memory were not significantly moderated by age but were stable across a broad age span. We concluded that, regardless of age, deficits in mathematics are mediated by both a domain-general and domain-specific working memory system.

3. Studies the working memory in children with specific arithmetical learning difficulties. Subject groups; Mean performance with various measures; Correlation matrix for selected tasks; Deficit in digit span.

School Based Working Memory Training: Preliminary finding of Improvement in Children’s Mathematical Performance
Introduction

Working memory is a complex cognitive system that is responsible for the storage and processing of information in the short term. This research is to provide evidence that working memory is a good predictor of mathematical skills. Also to determine if there is direct evidence that working memory capacity has an impact on children’s ability to perform mathematical task at school. The most widely known is the research proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974). The model consists of four parts, two slave systems the “phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad”, responsible for the short term storage. The third is the “episodic buffer” which is thought to integrate information in various forms into an integrated whole for short period. The last and fourth part is the “central executive” is supposed to monitor cognitive processes, inhibit unwanted information from current processing and control complex processes involved in storage and processing information (Engle, 2002).
Participants (Subjects)

A group of children aged 9 to 10 years were given a 6 –week course of working memory training that focused on the central executive. The sample consisted of 38 children from primary schools out of which were 15 males and 23 females. All the children were in year 5 (mean age 116.13 months, SD=3.43 months, range 112 to 123 month) at the time of testing. All the participants were given the same tasks, backwards digit recall for executive working memory, visual patterns for visual-spatial working memory and mathematical additions. After these initial measures, the children were divided into two groups. The first group was the control as nonintervention and the second was the intervention group who received a six weeks working memory training program. Following the training, all the participants were re-tested and the performances of the two groups were compared.

Hypothesis Children with recognized deficits in working memory experience a range of difficulties in school related to learning in general. Much research has focused on the role of working memory in mathematical cognition. Several authors have found and concluded that working memory plays a crucial role in calculation and in solving arithmetic word problems. The working memory model developed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) distinguishes a central executive system that is not modality specific and that is involved in the control of cognitive activity from two slave modality-specific servo systems: the phonological loop (specialized for storage and rehearsal of verbal information) and the visuospatial sketch pad (specialized for holding visual and spatial information) (Baddeley, 1986, 1996). The memory deficit of children with a learning disability in mathematics is extended to short-term memory tasks. Some investigators have found that digit span performance was significantly
Reduced for children with a mathematics disability (Geary, 2000) Short-term memory processes rely on a passive storage system and involve the recall of the information without manipulating it in any way (Engle, 2002).

The study addressed three specific research questions:
• Does phonological loop functioning predict scores on a simple multiplication task?
• Does visual-spatial working memory predict performance on a task involving simple addition?
• Does the ability of the central executive component of working memory to inhibit unwanted information predict accuracy levels on a test of simple multiplication?

Variables In this experiment the independent variable was the working memory and the dependent variable was the outcome. The independent variables were manipulated to create different levels by selecting the children from four different schools within a same region. The division of children into the two groups was matched as pairs, so that both children in each pair were from the same class. This was critical to eliminate any differences in the mathematical instructions within each matched pair. The extraneous variables in this experiment were carefully thought through to ensure that each of the four teachers from whose classes the participants were drawn had children in both the intervention and the non-intervention groups. This was important to ensure that different teachers could not influence mathematical outcomes by concentrating their teaching on specific areas of the curriculum or changing the amount of the school day devoted to mathematical instructions. The children were then matched closely as possible for mathematical performance firstly and then for working memory performance. Gender did not prove to be an important factor in the pre-training measures; this was not considered when matching the pairs.
How the Dependent Variables was monitored - Methodology
Central executive task – backward digit recall This task was taken from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C, 2001). The children listened to a list of digits, which required to repeat back in reverse order. If a child scored four correct trials in a block, he/she moved to the next block. If a child failed on any three trials, the task was terminated.
Visual –spatial working memory (visual patterns) This task was measured using an adaptation of the visual pattern task (Baddeley, 1999). The children were presented with matrices of squares for 2’s. In each some of the squares were empty and others filled in black. The matrix then disappeared for 2’s, after which, they were shown a blank version of the matrix and asked to indicated where the filled squares had been. Each child was given 10 patterns that gradually increased in difficulty by containing more filled squares. Each time the child had to recall the position of all the filled squares for correct response. The total of correct responses was recorded.
Mathematical task The children were presented with 20 additions questions which they had to calculate mentally. The addends were visible until the child answered. All the questions required the children to store partial results while they completed the calculations.
Working memory training - This training was monitored over six weeks
Week 1 – The children play and imagination game designed to help with remembering a string of objects.
Week 2 – The children were introduced to the idea that repeating things “in your head” could make them easier to remember. Kids were encouraged to repeat and practice sub-vocal rehearsal technique.
Week 3 – The children practiced the Backward Digit Recall tasking using their favored strategy.
Week 4 – the focus was on inhibiting unwanted information from working memory.
Week 5 – The children practiced a counting recall task, this required them to store information in the face of a concurrent processing demand.
Week 6 – The final week of intervention returned to practice the backward digit recall task that the children would be tested on the following week.
Results
Table 1.0 Scores for the Intervention and Control Groups Before and After the Intervention and Change in Scores
Table 1.0 Post Intervention measures | Time | Intervention group | ControlGroup | t | P | Effect sized | Visual patterns (correct trials) | Before | 7.95 | 7.74 | | | | | After | 8.68 | 7.37 | 2.59 | P<0.05 | 0.93 | | Change | 0.73 | 0.37 | 1.84 | P<0.05 | 0.65 | Backward Digit Recall (correct trials) | Before | 11.11 | 12.16 | | | | | After | 17.05 | 13.00 | 2.31 | P<0.05 | 0.65 | | Change | 5.94 | 0.84 | 3.99 | P<0.001 | 1.25 | Addition time(in seconds) | Before | 149 | 163 | | | | | After | 148 | 168 | -0.98 | Ns | 0.33 | | Change | 1 | -5 | 0.94 | Ns | 0.35 | Addition accuracy | Before | 3.26 | 3.32 | | | | | After | 1.58 | 2.95 | -2.63 | P<0.05 | 0.76 | | Change | 1.68 | 0.37 | 3.37 | P<0.01 | 0.69 |

There were no significant correlations between the children’s age and any of the mathematical or working memory measures. The independent samples “t-test” showed that there were no significant sex differences in performance on any of the working memory. The comparison between the two groups was done using t-tests. The matched t-test showed that there were no significant differences in any of the pre-intervention and the non intervention groups.

Pre-test The intervention group scored slightly higher in than the non-intervention group on the visual patterns task, but slightly worse on the backward digit recall task. No statistical significance was observed.
Post test Post training revealed significant difference in performance on the visual pattern task, the backward digit recalls task and addition accuracy. There were statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of the changes in performance between pre and post tests. The results showed clearly that the intervention group made greater gains in both the backward digit recall and the mathematical accuracy than the control group.
Conclusion
The results from this study do not contradict the hypothesis of previous studies. The group that received the intervention had significantly better post intervention visual –patterns scores than their matched controls. This concludes that working memory intervention has had a significant “knock-on” effect into the areas of working memory. There is a close connection between visual-spatial working memory and the central executive. The central executive working memory training had better mathematical performance than the non-intervention group after the interventions. This confirms that working memory training did more than simply increase the children’s processing speed. This also confirms that programs aimed at training children’s working memory could potentially lead to gains in mathematical performance.
Discussion
Critics will find this study interesting and positive for the future generations of children. There is qualified evidence that school-based working memory training can in the short-term boost children’s working memory performance by more accurate use of mnemonic strategy or by boosting the child’s ability to retain and manipulate information accurately. This study suggest that there is an impact on school tasks such as mental additions, the accurate performance of which places demands on central executive working memory. This study is a clear indication that there can be an improved strategy may develop in genuine increase in working memory capacity. There is hope for parents that schools in the future can make a difference and positively impact a child that is struggling.

References:
Baddeley, A.D. (2001). Is working memory still working? American Psychologist, pg 56, 849-864.
Baddeley, A.D. (2002, June). Is working memory still working? European Psychologist, 7, 85-97.
Engle, R.W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19-23.
Meyers, D.G. (2001). Exploring Psychology. Working Memory, pg. 259.

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