Working memory is an essential aspect of human activity. It considers many cognitive planes, and therefore there is an abundance of definitions for it (Chai et al., 2018). Generally, it is defined as a platform where thoughts are held and manipulated, and it serves as the cornerstone of goal-directed behavior (Miller et al., 2018). The nature of memory is such that it is limited, and these limitations need to be tested (Forsberg et al., 2021). When distracted, a person is capable of holding only six things in their memory.
The experiment was conducted with the scope of seven people who explained the topic and purpose of the experiment and gave their consent to it. The distractor used for each participant was an online game, Would you Rather, where they needed to click on a more favorable alternative. It was chosen because it employs both physical and cognitive action. The stimuli series was taken from the example provided in the assignment.
As a result of the experiment, several patterns have been observed. First of all, the majority of participants (5) started by easily remembering the numbers and gradually showing signs of struggling, specifically at the seventh level. Secondly, participants could remember on average six numbers. If I could do this study again, I would try to have a more varied sample because of two participants that displayed greater variations in results. One of them was older than the others, and their ability to remember was lower. The other was foreign language students, and their ability was significantly higher. I believe that in the first case, the reason was old age. In the second case, it could be the specifics of their education where they have to memorize long strings of words and do similar exercises.
I believe that if there was not any distractor, the average number would increase because it was visible that the participants found the game engaging and could not fully focus on memorizing. This experiment shows that memory can be influenced by outside factors, such as age and education, and concurring circumstances. Therefore, educators must consider students’ previous experiences with memorizing large loads of information when giving assignments.
References
Chai, W. J., Abd Hamid, A. I., & Abdullah, J. M. (2018). Working memory from the psychological and neurosciences perspectives: a review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 401, 1–16.
Forsberg, A., Guitard, D., & Cowan, N. (2021). Working memory limits severely constrain long-term retention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28(2), 537–547.
Miller, E. K., Lundqvist, M., & Bastos, A. M. (2018). Working memory 2.0. Neuron, 100(2), 463–475.