Short-term memory is also called working memory. When information from seeing, hearing and other modalities enters the brain, it is temporarily stored in short-term memory. One test of short-term memory is the number of items, usually words or numbers, that a person can store and retrieve. It is possible to remember almost infinite numbers of facts using long-term memory, but only a small number of items are held in short-term memory and can be used at a given moment.
Writing
Improving short term memory offers many benefits. For example, a better short term memory can help remember people's names at a party. In fact, short term memory could be the basis for general intelligence and reasoning. New research suggests that working-memory capacity could expand with practice. Writing as a brain exercise is highly recommended by psychologist Ronald Kellogg, Ph.D., at St. Louis University. In a report in the July 2006 edition of "Monitor on Psychology," Kellogg shows that not only does writing place more demand on the short-term memory system than reading does, it also improves short-term memory more than taxing laboratory tasks such as memorizing lists of nonsense syllables. Kellogg's research demonstrates how components of writing, including planning, imagining, envisioning, revising and juggling different ideas, can engage different facets of short-term memory. Even a small thing like making an agreement between a subject and a verb exercises the muscle of short term memory.
Chunking
Since the 1950s, psychologists have found working memory to have severe limitations. It has long been established that people generally can recall lists of numbers no more than seven digits long. However, it was also discovered that there were people who routinely recalled more than seven digits. How did they do that? It became clear that those who exceeded that limit tended to use "chunking," or grouping a few digits together to form a new memory unit. For example, the 1-800 part of a toll free telephone number is remembered as a unit, not 4 digits. For example, according to a report in the September 2005 "Monitor on Psychology," people aware of US intelligence agencies would see "FBICIA" as two chunks, rather the six letters, and that set of letters would only take two slots in a person's memory, rather than six. In a strict scientific sense, chunking does not really enhance short term memory, but only improves the daily performance related to short-term memory. However, this distinction makes no difference for ordinary people, and chunking is a common technique in mnemonics.
Flashing Cards
This method of improving short-term memory has many variations, but all with the same principle. The Flashing Cards Method shows you a series of playing cards rapidly. The goal is to memorize the cards and pick them out from a deck of cards at a later time. The cards can be replaced by numbers, shapes or spoken words; therefore, they can exercise different modalities, including seeing and hearing. Users inevitably acquire better results by memorizing more items and a higher retrieval rate through practice.
References
- Writing exercises all aspects of working memory; Ronald Kellogg, July 2006
- "Human learning and memory: Advances in theory and application: The 4th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory"; Working-memory capacity limits in a theoretical context; N. Cowan; 2005
- A workout for working memory; Sadie F. Dingfelder; September 2005
