Working memory (WM) refers to the ability to hold, manipulate, and store information for short periods. The more space available, the more memory can be devoted to problem solving and thinking tasks. Nevertheless, there is limited space in which information can be held, and the more effort devoted to one task, the less space is available to devote to other tasks. WM has consistently been shown to play an important role in the writing process, because weak WM limits the space available. Further, when writing skills that are expected to beautomatic continue to require effort, precious memory is required, taking away what would otherwise be available for higher-level language. Show
TheSimple View of Writing is an approach that integrates each of the 4 ideas just outlined to describe the writing process (Fig. 51.1). At the base of the triangle are transcription and executive functions, which support, within WM, the ability to produce text. Breakdowns in any of these areas can lead to poor writing, and identifying where the deficit(s) are occurring is essential when deciding to treat the writing problem. For example, children with weakgraphomotor skills (e.g., dysgraphia) must devote considerable effort to the accurate production of written language, thereby increasing WM use devoted to lower-level transcription and limiting memory that can be used for developing discourse. The result might be painfully slow production of a legible story, or a passage that is largely illegible. If, on the other hand, a child's penmanship and spelling have developed well, but their ability to persist with challenging tasks or to organize their thoughts and develop a coordinated plan for their paper is limited, one might see very little information written on the paper despite considerable time devoted to the task. Lastly, even when skills residing at the base of this triangle are in place, students with a language disorder will likely produce text that is more consistent with their language functioning than their chronological grade or age (Fig. 51.1). View chapter on ClinicalKey Rehabilitation of Patients with Traumatic Brain InjuryH. Richard Winn MD, in Youmans and Winn Neurological Surgery, 2017 Working MemoryWorking memory holds multiple transitory pieces of information for mental manipulation during problem solving, a process that is disrupted in patients with TBI. For example, patients with deficits in working memory are unable to perform backward digit spans. fMRI has provided insight into how TBI affects working memory. Under fMRI, patients with TBI were challenged with working memory tasks, resulting in overactivation of working memory–related networks of the lateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex.17 These findings suggest that patients with TBI need to recruit more neural activity than their healthy counterparts, which may partially explain the increased mental fatigue that these patients experience. Therefore, it is important to reduce the complexity of tasks for patients with TBI. “Working memory” and “attention” are functionally difficult to distinguish. Working memory is more internally mediated, like doing long division quietly in one’s own head; attention is more external, requiring focus on the math teacher’s visual and auditory cues. Anatomically, attention and working memory share fiber tracts. The attentional network connects parietal to frontal regions. The anatomy of this tract is important to clinical rehabilitation because focal trauma that appears to singularly damage the frontal lobes can actually portend more clandestine disruption of upstream parietal input. Diffusion tensor imaging can detect the loss of these tracts, which would clinically correlate to inattention during ineffective therapies. Attention comes in different forms: Selective attention is required by working memory, especially when allocating resources to dual tasks; intensive attention encompasses alertness and reaction time. Pharmacologically, rivastigmine was tested in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover trial. Patients benefited from statistically significant but clinically modest improvements in attention, working memory, and concentration.19 In a larger randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind prospective study, rivastigmine was only beneficial in a subgroup of patients who had moderate to severe TBI.20 Of note, the subgroup analysis was performed post hoc. Methylphenidate is another pharmacologic option for slow processing speed and poor working memory.21,22 Donepezil54 and lisdexamfetamine dimesylate22a improved attention in small studies. View chapter on ClinicalKey Intellectual and Memory ImpairmentsJoseph Jankovic MD, in Bradley and Daroff's Neurology in Clinical Practice, 2022 Forms and Stages of Declarative MemoryGenerally defined,memory refers to the ability of the brain to store and retrieve information, the necessary prerequisite for all learning. Some memories are so vivid they seem like a reliving of a prior experience, as in Marcel Proust’s sudden recollections of his youth on biting into a madeleine pastry. Other memories are more vague or bring up a series of facts rather than a perceptual experience. Memory has been divided into several types and stages, leading to a confusing set of terms and concepts. Clinical neurologists have historically divided memory into three temporal stages. These stages can be helpful when conceptualizing diagnosis and difficulties in independent living and have a general correspondence to the stages and concepts of memory proposed by cognitive neuroscientists. The first stage, referred to asimmediate memory by clinicians, corresponds to Baddeley’s concept ofworking memory (Baddeley, 2010).Immediate or working memory refers to the system that actively holds pieces of transitory information in conscious awareness, where it can be subsequently manipulated or used to perform a task. There has been recent debate over the true capacity of working memory (Cowan, 2001), but the general consensus is that the normal adult human being can retain 5–9 meaningful items in working memory (Miller, 1956). This information can generally reside in conscious awareness indefinitely with attention and rehearsal. However, without rehearsal, this information is lost in approximately 18–20 seconds (Brown, 1958; Peterson and Peterson, 1959). As an example, most people can hear or see a telephone number, walk across the room, and dial the number without difficulty. Once the number is dialed and conversation is started, the number fades from working memory. Relying primarily on prefrontal brain regions, working memory declines with normal aging. Furthermore, disorders of attention, focal lesions of the superior frontal neocortex affecting Brodmann areas 8 and 9, and patients with aphasia secondary to left frontal lesions can show profound impairment in working memory (Goldman-Rakic, 1996). The second stage of memory, referred to by clinicians asshort-term orrecent memory, involves the ability to encode and retrieve specific items, such as words or events, after a delay of minutes or hours. Some of the aforementioned confusion over terminology comes from the fact that cognitive psychologists posit that working memory underlies short-term memory and consider it distinct from episodic learning and memory. In clinical parlance, short-term memory is synonymous with recent episodic memory, whereas some cognitive psychologists use “short-term” to mean immediate memory. Short-term or recent episodic memory requires the function of the hippocampus and parahippocampal areas of the medial temporal lobe for both encoding and storage. The amygdala, a structure adjacent to the medial temporal cortex, is not essential for episodic memory but seems crucial for the encoding of emotional or social contexts of specific events (Markowitsch and Staniloiu, 2011). In contrast, the retrieval of recent episodic memories tends to rely on a delicate interaction between prefrontal regions and medial temporal regions.Budson and Price (2005) provide a simple analogy for remembering the anatomical organization of recent episodic memory. In this analogy, the frontal lobes are considered the “filing clerk” of the memory system, deciding what memories to retrieve and from where to retrieve them. The medial temporal lobes are the “recent memory filing cabinet,” where recent memories are stored. Patients with medial temporal lobe damage (e.g., Alzheimer disease) have a damaged file cabinet, in which memories are unable to be stored. In contrast, patients with frontal lobe damage (e.g., stroke, tumor) have difficulty in properly organizing the files in the cabinet or difficulty locating them during retrieval. Finally, in patients with subcortical white matter pathology (e.g., ischemic disease, multiple sclerosis), the file clerk has difficulty gaining access to the file cabinet, which makes retrieval difficult. However, once given an option between multiple files—through a recognition or multiple-choice test—the file clerk can correctly identify the needed file. Commonly used bedside tests assess recent episodic memory. The patient is asked to recall three to five unrelated items at 5 minutes (testing the file cabinet). For any unrecalled words, the patient is given a hint or cue (testing the file clerk). Questions about this morning’s breakfast are also effective. It is relatively easy to test for impairment in recent episodic memory by including general questions about recent events in one’s life or the news in rapport building and interview. View chapter on ClinicalKey The Role of Spatial Attention in Tactile Short-Term MemoryTobias Katus, Søren K. Andersen, in Mechanisms of Sensory Working Memory, 2015 AbstractShort-term memory (STM) encompasses cognitive functions for the storage, maintenance, and mental manipulation of information that is no longer present in the sensory environment. Selective attention, on the other hand, relates to functions that modulate the processing of sensory events during encoding. We review evidence from a series of three tactile memory experiments using electroencephalography and discuss our observations in the context of research on tactile perceptual attention and visual STM. Striking similarities across the domains of STM and perception indicate that the central executive system for tactile STM relies on control mechanisms that accomplish attentional selection during somatosensory encoding. Our findings support the view that STM emerges when attention is directed to the representation of sensory signals stored in modality-specific brain areas. View chapterPurchase book Read full chapter URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128013717000211 Learning Theory and BehaviorHenry L. RoedigerIII, ... Wenbo Lin, in Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference (Second Edition), 2017 1.02.3.2 Short-Term StorageShort-term memory (or short-term storage; the two are often used interchangeably) refers to retention of information in a system after information has been categorized and reached consciousness. In fact, contents of short-term memory are sometimes equated with the information of which a person is consciously aware. Information can be continually processed in short-term storage (e.g., via rehearsal or subvocal repetition). If a person is distracted, information is rapidly lost from this store. Many different techniques have been developed to study aspects of short-term memory, but all have in common that subjects are given relatively brief numbers of items (often digits or words) and are asked to recall or recognize them later (often after some brief interfering task). What are the 3 types of memory?The main forms of memory presented include sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What is shortShort-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recited.
Which type of memory holds information for very short periods of time?Sensory memory holds sensory information for very brief periods of time, usually 1 second or less. The processing of memories and other information begins in this type of memory.
What are the 4 types of memory?4 Types of Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, Working & Long-Term.
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