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The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload And The Limits Of Working Memory (2008)

by Torkel Klingberg(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0195372883 (ISBN13: 9780195372885)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: A disappointment. I did learn some things about working memory and how its deficits are linked to a wide range of behavior, from ADHD to dementia. But a lot of the book was commentary and speculation on information about memory that has been covered in the popular press. I guess I was hoping for more than "It is up to us to control our environments and reshape the work we do to our abilities." We know that. But how, when our work and the world keep making increasing demands on our attention and working memory?The few suggestions--chess helps, crosswords don't, maybe we should all take Ritalin or play Grand Theft Auto for an hour each day--aren't really very helpful. I'm also not sure I agree with the author's belief that the only way to challenge ourselves and expand... more our intelligence is to become increasingly hooked into computers. The illustrations of brains, from Einstein to phrenology, were a bright spot.
review 2: The classic menopause moment, of course, is when you hurry with great purpose into another room only to find that you're clueless once there. If you're a mother, it's a mommy moment. Fair-haired? A blond moment. On beyond menopause? A senior moment. All these short-term lapses represent a sudden and unexpected blackout in working memory. Let me explain.You needn't be a neuroscientist to recognize that there is a difference between working and long-term memory. Here's what Swedish researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg has to say on the subject:"[Working memory:] refers to our ability to remember information for a limited period of time, usually a matter of seconds...[I:]t might seem a simple function, but it is fundamental and vital to numerous mental tasks, from attention control to solving logical problems...One of the defining characteristics of working memory is its capacity limitation."In contrast, again per Dr. Klingberg:"The amount of information that can be stored in long-term memory is virtually boundless. Long-term memory means that we can memorize something, direct our attention at something else for a few minutes or years, and then retrieve the first item again at will. This is not how working memory operates, for when information is being stored here, it is under the constant glare of attention."In Klingberg's book "The Overflowing Brain" due for release in 2009, he explores the good, the bad, and the exasperating of our brains on information overload. This book is well-written (or well-translated from Swedish) and not for the faint of brain. He offers both animal and human evidence as well as imaging evidence from functional MRIs and PET scans that explain why it is that the overwhelmed, the inattentive, and the aged have trouble doing two things at once much less multi-tasking.In brief, whereas memories are encoded into long-term and permanent storage through biochemical and cellular changes, short-term memory is a work in progress that depends on the continual activation of neurons in the front and sides of our brain. Interrupt the current current in these cells and poof! there goes your thought. In other words, if an unexpected stimulus such as the ping of a text message or your teenager calling on the back office line turns your attentional spotlight off your search for a report, you will find yourself in front of the open file drawer with no notion why.Is information overload a bad thing? Interestingly, Dr. Klingberg presents evidence that we can expand our working memory capacity through the daily exercise of focused multi-tasking. He does note, however, that working memory 'bandwidth' narrows with age, and the mismatch of lowered working memory capacity with higher information load results in stress.Well yeah. And menopause moments. less

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