Parenting Technique: Increase Your Child’s Working Memory

As someone who worked in the area of Intelligence training I am very, very skeptical. For example, there was a burst of optimism about training working memory through Dual N-Back tasks, bought about by a revolutionary paper from Jaeggi et al. Then... not quite nothing but close.

I suspect there's a reason that no braining activity, ever, has been consistently shown to improve intelligence at the construct level. It may be that more specific capacities related to intelligence (like working memory) are improved, and that these affect life outcomes and practical capacity to grasp concepts etc, but this has yet to demonstrated to my satisfaction.

What does working memory have to do with spelling?

This reminds of Kvothe from "the Name of the Wind" (a magician prodigy who's mentor trained him very hard, emphasizing memory and concentration, allowing him to best every other magician).

Upvoted for:

1) Awesomeness 2) Actually putting something into practice and observing what happens instead of spending endless time theorizing and worrying about whether it the "best" use of time while getting nothing done (which I think is a fairly common problem in this community).

It sounds like Alex is benefitting a lot right now from having a large working memory. It is nice to have enough memory that you don't get left behind. That's usually not been a problem for me, but when it happens I can end up wasting an hour of potential learning. I don't know that many kids would benefit as much as Alex, I think most kids would get bored and frustrated more easily.

My only concern is whether Alex's gains in working memory are permanent and if not whether he can keep up the training needed to maintain it. If no to both, then he might be at a disadvantage later on, especially if he's surrounded by people who naturally have that level of memory. Although perhaps it would still beneficial overall.

Much of the effect you attribute to training is likely just maturation of the brain. There's going to be a lot of natural improvement in cognitive functions until your son reaches his 20s. Can't see harm in the exercises though, and I think you can assume by default that training will improve at least the specific functions trained.

He does mental math requiring keeping track of numbers (i.e. 42 times 37).

I notice that being able to enjoy juggling large amounts of digits requires a certain predisposition.

I do lots of math with my 9 year old and he likes to do (and discover) tricky (at his level) properties of numbers like noticing that 3 cancels in 3/2 times 4/3 (he doesn't know the 'rules' governing multiplication of fractions but somehow juggles the numbers nonetheless - in this case he notices that 3/2 is 1,5 is one and a half...). I'm quite sure he enjoys it as I talked about this exercise with his older brother when he chimed in. But he doesn't like mentally multiplying two-digit numbers (though he can). He rather does rough estimates.

Why am I telling this? There are differnt kinds of working memory and other brain functions. And doing multiplication exercises can be fun but need not. Why do it? Could be that it's easy/natural. Could be that it is fun. Could be that it is challenge. Could be that it is hard work but wanting to conform to expectations may do the trick. What's it in your (sons) case?

This is a very interesting suggestion that I may try out. To make sure I see the effect hope to do a before and after test. And do it with all my four sons.

But first I have some questions:

• It could be that he just natively has a good working memory. I was always surprised by the very good episodic memory of my oldest son. And the rote memory of my second oldest. And the motor memory of my third. All untrained.

• Are you sure this provides a benefit/is wirth the effort? We live in a digital age where we do have access to lots of short-term memory aids. - This is a genuine question I'm not sure on myself.

My personal guess would be the training itself doesn't help much. But the memory techniques do. Why? Because I playd lots of Concentration Game with all my sons and it is very difficult for all of them. But after I introduced building stories around the visible cards they were able to pick up the technique and at least improve somewhat.

Interesting. Number sequences consist of objects that are all of the same type, they are all on the same level of abstraction. What if you asked him to remember not only numbers themselves, but also things that are on a different level of abstraction, e.g. the structure in which they are arranged? For example, if you made him memorize a tree, you could ask him to traverse it in some order.

Or perhaps you could say a short number sequence that has some non-obvious hidden pattern and ask him to discover that pattern and tell you the next number in the sequence.

Have you thought about teaching him to have a Memory Palace?

I think it's great you do fun stuff with your kid that also helps him learn. Have you tried doing the exercises yourself, to improve your own memory too?

I often debate whether increasing types of working memory - i.e. strings of numbers, is actually helpful to real life. If it were, then I would be congratulating you on this training. I would be interested if you are aware of proof of its usefulness?

in a related example - the brain-training Nintendo DS games came out; people were able to show improvements in number tasks or sudoku's, but when evaluated scientifically (; at a later time), the improved skill was shown to not be applicable to other areas of life, rather; just good for in-game skill level. (I don't know where the sources for this information are)

It should at least be useful in debates, if the other party begins their argument with 'the worst argument in the world'.

The title of this post wins the "If I Had Anti-Kibitzer On I'd Assume This Is Spam" Prize.