Training working memory through gamification

Working memory has a few varying definitions but it is essentially our short term memory that can be accessed quickly to perform everyday tasks. In a world full of distractions, think of working memory as the cognitive system you tap into to pick out the right information to solve immediate problems.

For example, in the day-to-day life of an adult, trying to remember information that’s been relayed to you while dealing with environmental distractions utilises working memory. Similarly, if you were repeating a work task that you’d just made a mistake on, through your working memory the mistake would be on your mind, so you would use that information to not make that mistake again. If you engage in brain training games, there’s a good chance you’ve been playing games targeting your working memory.

For children in classrooms, trying to work through problems in exercise books while being distracted by other students and even their own thoughts taps into working memory.

What is working memory?

Working memory is a cognitive system that allows human beings to recall and utilise retained information for a brief amount of time. It’s how we keep information at the front of our minds in order to guide decision making. It is a theoretical construct related to cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience.

The different theories on the functioning of working memory

The multicomponent model of Baddeley and Hitch

Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed their model of working memory in 1974. It broke down working memory into multiple components. The central executive controls and regulates all cognitive processes, directing attention, and making long term and short term memory work together.

The central executive essentially acts in a supervisory capacity over the model’s slave systems. These include: the phonological loop, which temporarily stores auditory information; the visuospatial sketchpad, which stores visual and spatial information; and the episodic buffer, which was only added to the model in the year 2000 in order to account for linking information across working memory and long term memory.

“Long term working memory”

The framework termed “long term working memory” was proposed by Anders Ericsson and Alter Kintsch in 1995. It suggested that models of working memory based on short term storage needed to be extended to include working memory based on long term storage. It was designed to account for the large demands understanding text and expert performance places on working memory. In this framework, parts of long term memory are able to work as part of working memory.

Working memory ultimately comes down to how you process and focus on your immediate goals

Regardless of the minutiae of how it’s compartmentalised and defined, working memory and working memory capacity is incredibly important. It’s how you remember the important parts of conversations and meetings, and how you remember the reason you travelled from one room to another. As people age, working memory is one of the first cognitive functions to decline. This can massively reduce an individual’s effectiveness at work, as well as their quality of life. However, there is a lot of evidence to suggest working memory capacity can be increased by exercising it in childhood through educational games. This could potentially give a student better focus and attention which could serve them in their future studies and beyond.

How can games improve working memory?

Using educational games to improve working memory is very similar to brain training. Exercising a player’s brain’s ability to remember short term, and tapping into previously stored information can improve mental plasticity, keep the mind agile, and allow them to practise critical thinking.

To gamify any process is to apply game mechanics to typically less playful tasks in order to distract from its more mundane aspects. To make a game of something taps into a student’s natural desire for a challenge, and by inviting them to play, it can feel like far less of a chore.

Use educational games for added working memory benefits

While training working memory might not be something allocated for in a term’s curriculum, or an explicit development point for an employee, utilising educational games for specific topics can also incorporate some helpful memory exercises. On the Drimify platform, you could use the Memory Game to help young students match visual shapes with their descriptions. This is targeting their visual memory, and reinforcing it with the written description. The same principle could be applied to the shapes of countries with their names, or as a method to teach young children how to tell the time on an analogue or 24-hour clock.

A more advanced way to engage your students in games that target their working memory would be to customise the Crossword Puzzle format and make the clues subject-relevant. This encourages them to retrieve information they’ve been taught to solve the puzzle they’re faced with.

Use gamified learning for students with lower working memory capacity

Gamified learning can deliver great results for students with lower working memory capacities. Students who struggle with working memory, potentially with learning difficulties like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), will probably also struggle to pay attention relative to other students. This can result in poorer responses to more traditional teaching methods.

Educational games could be a great way to engage them in a more familiar format. The video game mechanics would offer a more comfortable and productive medium to engage them in their education. A format like the Dynamic Path™ allows you to use all the games in the Drimify catalogue to create a learning pathway of interactive modules. This lets you deliver content, quizzes, and varied gameplay elements, fully customisable to the programme of learning.

Incorporate working memory exercises into your educational games easily

Online educational games have a lot of capacity to help students learn across a variety of subjects, as well as posing extra utility when teaching students who struggle with working memory.

Incorporating customised versions of the Memory Game or the Crossword Puzzle to target and exercise a player’s working memory is an efficient and innovative way to add value to the gamification of other subjects. These could work in a standalone format, or be incorporated as levels across a larger learning pathway.

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