Working memory which allows multitasking could have limits: Study

Working memory which allows one to juggle multiple tasks at the same time may have its limits according to a new study published in the journal eLifeA learning process involving chunking or grouping related pieces of information rather than capacity is the real driver of working memory according to coauthor of the study Aneri Soni a graduate student at Brown University USThe capacity of ones working memory how many tasks can be performed simultaneously is considered to be limited However there are competing theories as to why or how this might be true the researchers saidIn this study the team ran trials of everyday human tasks on a computer model of the basal ganglia and the thalamus brain regions relevant to the functioning of working memory The model was shown multiple coloured blocks oriented in different directions and asked to recall which colored block was pointing in which direction Over multiple trials the model learned how to strategically compress information and began chunking together similar colors such as blue and light blueHowever trials on the model without the ability to chunk but with plenty of space to store items showed that it was worse at both storing and retrieving the items the authors saidThe model did not seem to realise it had access to such a large amount of storage they addedThe researchers found that a model that knew how to chunk or group related pieces of information was able to strategically store information to its full storage capacityThe simulations we ran show that if we held more than just a few items at a time it becomes too difficult to learn how to manage so many pieces of information at once such that the brain gets confused and cant use the information it does storeiquest Soni saidFurther critical to learning is the brain chemical dopamine which plays a role in producing motivation to learn and in consolidating newly learned information as memoryThe findings could therefore help in understanding how learning is affected in disorders such as Parkinsons disease attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD and schizophrenia where dopamine production and regulation are known to be impairedIn one of the experiments in this study Soni altered a model to mimic what is known about dopamine levels in patients with Parkinsons disease schizophrenia and ADHD When the model was challenged to perform the same commonly performed human tasks the results showed that without a healthy dopamine system the model could not learn how to use its storage space as efficiently and did not chunk items as oftenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever