PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 1

Introduction

Educational psychology is the psychology of learning and teaching. Besides

that, Cherry (2016) says that educational psychology also contains the study of how

people learn. It covering the topic such as student outcomes, the instructional process,

individual differences in learning, gifted learners, and learning disabilities. Most of

the educational psychologist spend their time investigate ways to describe and to

make progress learning and teaching.

This psychology not just only contain childhood and adolescence’s learning

process but includes the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that are involved

in learning throughout the entire lifespan (Cherry, 2016).

Behaviourism Psychology

Behaviourism also can call as behavioural psychology. Behavioural

psychology is a theory of learning in the view of the idea that all behaviours are had

obtained through conditioning. Conditioning appears through interaction with

environment. Majority behaviourists believe that our actions can be shape by

environment stimuli (Cherry, 2016).

There are two major types of conditioning:

Classical conditioning is a tool where people frequently used in behavioural

training. Classical conditioning is include a neutral stimulus is paired with a normally

occurring stimulus. Ultimately, the neutral elicit the same response as the normally

occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself.

This classical conditioning is reported in 1927 by Ivan Pavlov, the Russian Nobel-

Prize- wining physiologist (Edward, 2012). Ivan Pavlov was studying the process

between the roles of salivation in dogs’ digestive. He notices the dog began to salivate
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although the food hasn’t actually in its mouth yet. Through this observation he

confirms that the association between the stimulus, for example the sight of food, and

the salivary is the respond must have been learn. Furthermore, he proposed that this

learned relationship was formed via its association with the reflexive, or automatic,

between food in the mouth and salivation.

To present of food in his mouth and elicit salivate reflexively – without any

conditioning. Therefore food is the mouth is an unconditioned stimulus (US) – an

activity where automatically elicit a specific response and the automatic response is

called the unconditional response (US). Before conditioning, when someone tell him

the word sour at the same time there was no any food in his mouth. Therefore, the

word sour didn’t lead to a specific response because the word of sour before he has

not learn before and the reflexive association was not learned. The word sour is called

neutral stimulus (NS) and didn’t lead to a specific response called no conditioned

respond. Because he has learned the name sour therefore salivation is happen, the

learned stimulus (the word sour) is called conditioned stimulus (CS). During

conditioning, the food is given pair with says the word sour and lead to the salivation.

After the conditioning, once he listens the world sour (CS) he will start to salivate

(CR) although the food is not is his mouth. Basically UR and CR are the same

behaviour which is eliciting salivation. It called a respondent behaviour because there

are elicited unconscious actions by stimuli.

From the example above, we can know that respondent conditioning is a

learning process where repeated association with a stimulus until gain the ability to

lead to a response. In other words, where we have “learned” to respond automatically

to some classification of stimulus with joy, fear, excitement, or anticipation we have

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become classical conditioned. In the other word classical conditioning also can be

apply in today education.

Application of the theory in life and reality especially

As a teacher, we wish that our student able to gain positive attitude toward us

and our subject. Firstly, we and our learning activities will be neutral stimuli, but over

time we and how our teach can become conditioned stimuli that conditioned

responses ( emotions ) of interest joy, elicit approach behaviour for example studying

and asking question, and even stimulate physiological responses of comfort and state

of nature.

The classical conditioning processes is always go on in daily classroom

remind by learning theorists. Teachers role are to be aware of the classical

conditioning model and use it to build positive relationship between teachers’

teaching activities and learning.

Teachers can use classical conditioning to create a positive learning

environment. Most of the student may facing anxious and nervous when he or she

need to presenting in front of the class, reading out loud or teacher need them to come

out solve the math problem on the whiteboard. Besides that, if teacher always shout or

punish students, they will feel scared to attend the particular teacher’s class. Teachers

should make their students to feel comfort, relaxed and calm by being cheerful,

pleasant by using classical conditioning theory. Positive learning environment will

help teacher become welcoming. At the same time, this also helps the students to

build up their confident in learning.

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Usually, teachers use classical conditioning paired with operant conditioning

to manage their class. Therefore this may involve a system of reinforcements and

punishments that can increase or decrease student’s behaviour. For example, a teacher

can use positive reinforcement to set up a positive learning environment during a

science lesson by rewarding the children who are able to do experiment quietly and

independently. Classical conditioning work together with operant conditioning will

increase child’s behaviour and will allow him to build confident during doing

experiment independently.

Classical conditioning not only can use in shaping children’s behaviour,

teachers also can this theory in classroom routines. This action is usually use by

teacher but without realizing. For example, every time students are walking around

during teacher is not in the class, when the teacher comes back to class and point to

the chair. Eventually, the students will be conditioned and will associate the teacher

pointing the chair with needing them to sit down and students will do it without

thinking. In the first few time, the students will not know what is going on and what

teacher actually need them to do, by giving them few time in practice children will

realize when the teacher pointing to the chair is means need them to sit down.

According to UNICEF (2001) he says that some teachers and parents like to

give physical punishment to the students and makes it easier for teachers to manage

their classrooms. But some people agree that physical punishment is does not helping

children to decrease their bad behaviour opposite will cause them physical and

psychological injury. Moreover, nowadays parents are inadmissibility teacher to

physical punishment their child. Teacher should be train to use classical conditioning

theory to replace physical punishment. Classical conditioning can help the children to
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be away from anxiety. Moreover, classical conditioning also can help in build-up

student interest in learning.

Conclusion

As a conclusion classical conditioning is a useful tool in behavioral training.

Actually some of the teachers are using it to control class routine and shaping

student’s behaviour without realizing. But some of the teachers still using physical

punishment to punish student. Physical punishment can made the children to increase

their aggression, antisocial behaviour, physical injury and mental health problem say

by Brendan, 2012. Therefore teachers should apply classical conditioning theory in

classroom. Classical conditioning theory can allow the children to change their

existing behaviour to good behaviour. Other than that, the students will not feeling

anxiety to attend the class and teacher also become welcoming.

Skinner -Operant Conditioning

Skinner (1948) Studied Operant conditioning by conducting experiments by

using animals where he placed in a Skinner Box. B.F Skinner (1938) come up with

the term of Operant conditioning; it defines about changing of attitude by using

reinforcement after the desired response. Operant conditioning explained a process by

an animal's behaviour changes over time in effect of reinforced learning. Skinner's

experiments showed the effects of positive and negative reinforcements on behaviour.

Skinner believed that research of observable behaviours is more productive

than internal mind (McLeod, 2013) .He tested his theory by observing the cause of

actions and the consequence that were combined with them. Operant conditioning

creates the theory base on the environmental conditions that shapes behaviours by
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rewarding or punishment. By using rewards and punishment, good attitude can be

reinforced and strengthened while bad behaviour or undesired behaviour can be

remove. Skinner used his creation the Skinner Box to exhibit the effects of Operant

conditioning on rats and pigeons using levers and electric streams to condition their

behaviour (McLeod, 2013).

B.F. Skinner (1938) finds three types of responses or Operant that can follow

behaviour.

Neutral Operants: Effects from the environment that increase or decrease the

possibility of the attitude being repeated.

Reinforces: Effects from the environment that increase the possibility of the attitude

being repeated. Reinforces can be positive and negative.

Punishers: Effects from the environment that decrease the probability of the attitude

being repeated. Punishment means to weaken the particularly unwanted behaviour.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is to strengthen behaviour by providing such as praises

and rewards to increase occurrence of particular behaviour through the feeling of a

desirable stimulus after receiving the reward. For example, if the student complete

school homework or get good exam results, the student will received reward or

appreciation from the teacher. So, the next time the student will repeat the behaviour

in the future, in such a way strengthening the behaviour of completing the task given

by the teacher.
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Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is to remove unpleasant stimulus to increase the

specific attitude. Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviour because it stops or

removes an unpleasant experience. For example, good student who works diligently

on her coursework as consequences the teacher will remove some of her work such as

dropping the quiz or removing homework assignment. In the example stimulus was

removed in order the student behaviour to increase which be negative reinforcement.

Punishment

Defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or

eliminate a response rather than increase it. Positive punishment is directly applying

an unpleasant stimulus. For example, a student fall asleep during class as consequence

the teacher upset and verbally scold the student to wake him up. The misbehave of

sleeping in the class will stop and the student start focusing in the class.

Negative Punishment is removing a potentially rewarding stimulus. For

example, the student playing with smart phone while teacher is teaching, the teacher

will confiscate the student smart phone this action is to strengthening the behaviour to

pay attention during class.

Operant conditioning in the classroom

Operant Conditioning methods work for the students with issues. An easy way

to shape the behaviour is by providing feedback to the student by giving compliments,

assertion and encouragement. By praising the student, the student will learn the with

more enthusiasm and response well in the new task and continue putting in the hard

work till they success. For example, if a teacher wanted to encourage students to
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answer questions in class the teacher should complement the student .Gradually the

teacher will only praise the students when their answer is correct, and over time only

particular answers will be praised. Unwanted behaviours, such as tardiness and

dominating class discussion can be eliminate through being ignored by the teacher.

However, it is important to vary the type of reinforcement given so that the behaviour

is maintained. This is not an easy task, as the teacher may appear insincere if he/she

thinks too much about the way to behave.

Advantages and Challenges in Implementation of Operant Conditioning

Implementing Operant Conditioning into education setting can be benefit to

student by providing incentives to learning through reinforcement method. It is doable

and easily to be carry out into the teaching environment (Topix.teachpsych.org, 2014).

Although Operant Conditioning has many advantages but there are some

challenges as well. Focusing on good or bad behaviour may not work for some of

student especially in group setting. Reinforcement method can be tailored according

individual needs but at the same time difficult to implement in a large group of

students. If the student are targeted rather than the actual specific behaviour itself

through punishment it can cause more problems with future behaviour or put and end

to the behaviour until the stimulus its not a threat (Kazepides, 1976)

Critical Evaluation

Operant conditioning theory can be used a wide variety of behaviours.

However, the Operant conditioning does not take into account the role of inherited

factors and cognitive learning, and thus is a incomplete description of the learning

process in humans and animals (McLeod, 2015) .For example, Kohler (1924) found
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that primates often seem to solve problems in a flash of insight rather than be trial and

error learning. Also social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) suggests that humans can

learn by themselves through observation not through through personal experience

moreover using animal research in Operant conditioning studies also raises the issue

of extrapolation. Some psychologists disagree that we cannot conclude from studies

on animals to humans as their anatomy and physiology is different from humans.

A critique of Behaviourism

A critique of Behaviourism, according to Myers (1988) some of information

telling that critiques of behaviourism that initially come up from axenic positivist

reductionism. Firstly, behaviourism decreases the behaviour to the level of a

correlation between an external stimulus and an internal response. This puts Myers

argument by error by ignoring the importance of the process of cognitive psychology,

which focuses on internal processes such as perception and learning from reflection,

which has an important role to play in facilitating the understanding of learning. This

immersion on reductionism also diode behaviourism to take over a very simplistic

approach to the correlation between learning and the development of language. This

led Chomsky (1959) to subject behaviourism to one of its most disrespectful critical

review, based on the capability of humans to create never before expressed sentences.

According Mennell (1980, p 8) argues that since "language is indivisible from social

activities and also Chomsky's theory of language itself telling that the case against the

determination of the behaviour." Kolb (1988) also criticized behaviourism to

conceptualize the nature of the relationship as one way when the fact not applies.

Kolb criticized behaviourism establishes empirically validated models of learning that

can only be used in artificial laboratory environments. Another important criticism of

behaviourism can developed through the work of Piaget (1926) and Vygotsky (1962)
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and known as constructivism. Although Derry (1996) pointed out that there is little

agreement on the constructivist theory of learning there is universal agreement on

some common themes and issues covering the spectrum in different from the concept

(Hanley, 1994).Firstly, amongst these criticisms is that, while behaviourism

emphasizes external behaviour that can be observed and avoid reference to meaning,

content and reasoning, constructivism adopts a cognitive approach. Significant

differences in emphasis have a profound impact on every aspect of learning theory

consists of the knowledge and skills acquired to the relationship between students and

teacher. Supporting on this argument,Von Glasersfeld (1995) clearly facile the

differences in the roles of teachers between constructivism and behaviourism

respectively as a 'midwife in the birth of understanding’ as opposed to a mechanical

transfer of knowledge. Thus, as Wilson and Cole (1991) argues, constructivism must

place students in active control of their learning through trying to solve the

problem .Therefore, supporting to this criticism behaviourism, Fosnot (1996) suggest

that the focus should be given to the concept development and develop a deep

understanding rather than behaviour or learning skill. Thus, learning is seen as a

meaningful representation of the process of building its own world of experience.

This also means that educators and trainers are challenged with the need to build a

conceptual model of the student because, argues by Von Glaserfeld (1996), this can

be very different from what teachers are meant. Constructivism also believes that

learning is influenced by the interaction between individuals and their environment as

evidenced in the work, Jonassen (1994) who showed that there are a variety of

features for learning principles that should be followed. Constructivism itself has been

criticised for expecting too much from students and take the risk of critical gaps in

what they have learned.

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INTRODUCTION

Working memory is a cognitive system with the ability to process and retain

temporary information for further processing (Miyake & Shah, 1999). It plays a

fundamental role in complex cognition and is highly involved in our daily routines,

such as reading newspaper, computing the amount of the price, comparing various

attributes of different restaurants, etc. Nevertheless, reasoning and decision making

capabilities are strongly allied with working memory to guide for appropriate

behaviour. It had been proclaimed as ‘perhaps the most significant achievement of

human mental evolution’ (Goldman-Rakic, 1992). Performance on working memory

tasks is depend on individual differences and can be tested reliably as young as 4

years old (Alloway & Gathercole, 2006).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The concept of working memory evolved from earlier concepts of short-term

memory. Initially, Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) provided multi-store model to define

short-term memory as an inadequate capacity memory store that was easily loss due

to decay. However, some theorists were of the opinion that there are two forms of

memory dissimilarity, assuming that working memory is able to manipulate the stored

information, whereas short-term memory only allows for the short-term storage of

information (Cowen, 2008). As reflected by the fact that short-term memory is the

capability to sustain information over a short period (in the order of seconds).

Meanwhile, working memory is not only referring to mere maintenance, but also

emphasises on the notion of manipulating information. Thus, Baddeley and Hitch

(1974) introduced the concept of multi-component model of working memory by

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trying to explain the notion of a passive short-term memory to an active more

complicated cognitive system.

The capacity of working memory is overall limited. Miller (1956) claimed that

the information –processing capacity of young adults is about seven elements, which

is considered as a ‘chunk’. The elements are not limited to digits, letters, words, or

other units. Nonetheless, Service (1998) was of the opinion that it is difficult to draw

a conclusion on the capacity of working memory to a number of chunks as there are

other factors may affect the memory span. For example, ability of memory span is

better for shorter than longer words. Lexical of the content will also affect the

performance of the memory span.

THEORY & MODEL

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) introduced multi-component model of working

memory by conducting experiments using the so-called dual-task interference

paradigm. Dual-task costs highly depended on the specific combination of tasks

(Hazeltine, Ruthruff & Remington, 2006). People can perform simultaneously after

training if the given task is using auditory stimuli and vocal response was paired with

another task using visual stimuli and manual response. In contrast, people are less

able to perform although training was given when a given task is using auditory

stimuli and manual response was paired with other task using visual stimuli and vocal

responses. Moreover, the earlier stage of practice and level of task difficulty also

significantly contribute to the outcome of dual-task performance.

There are 3 main components contained in multi-component model: the

central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuo-spatial sketchpad (Figure 2).

There are four basic capabilities were postulated in central executive: the ability to
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focus on significant information, to divide attention between concurrent tasks, to

switch attention, and the ability to relate the content of working memory to long-term

memory (addressed separately as buffer episode in 2000). In addition, it is also

responsible in coordinating two subsidiary storage systems or ‘slave systems’. ‘Slave

systems’ generally play the roles to maintain the short-term information received from

central executive.

Figure 2: Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)

Phonological loop is one of the ‘slave systems’ that responsible to store

phonological information (aka sound of language). There are two components: 1)

phonological store, which holds phonological form that fade within seconds, 2)

articulatory rehearsal, which rehearsal loop will be activated to continuously

refreshing the information and avoid the information decay. For example, long

number of telephone number can be remembered as long as one who had listened
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keep on re-articulate the telephone number to self again and again during the

articulatory rehearsal process to prevent memory trace faded away.

Visuospatial sketchpad, another ‘slave systems’, is dedicated to store visual

and spatial information. Logie (1995) suggested that this slave system can be

fractionated into visual cache and inner scribe. Visual cache stores information of the

phenomena perception and visual imagery such as shape, colour and texture, whereas

inner scribe is always focus on the spatial attention and movement control. Inner

scribe will also rehearse information in the visual cache and transfer to the central

executive. Thus, visual working memory task plays important role in top-down and

bottom-up processing (Oh & Kim, 2004).

In 2000, Baddeley revised and extended the model by introducing the fourth

component, which is episodic buffer. He explained that episodic buffer is assumed to

be a limited capacity store that is capable of multi-dimensional coding. It holds

representations that integrate phonological, visual and spatial information with other

necessary information (e.g., semantic information, musical information). It links

between working memory and long-term memory by binding relevant information to

create integrated episodic (Weiten, 2013). It is then create a mental modelling space

that facilitates the deliberation of promising outcome. Hence, episodic buffer is

important to serve as a basis for planning future action. Yet, empirical exploration is

still required to explain the mechanism of the overall process.

COMMENTS

In this modern life, the dual-task situations are becoming increasingly

prevalent. For example, people talk and drive simultaneously, student listen to music

and do homework at once, etc. The model of multi-component system provides a

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better realistic reference than multi-store model to help people nowadays to improve

the quality of the result whenever they need to perform two things at the same time.

By knowing that working memory can be fractionated into numbers of

subsystems, processes and mechanisms, people can try to control their attention

abilities over other components of working memory as well as other cognitive

abilities. The model also helps to make sense of verbal reasoning, comprehension,

problem-solving, navigation, etc. On top of that, new predictions and hypotheses can

be drawn up for testing. It is also a useful in predicting and understanding individual

differences in cognitive maturity and intellectual aptitude (Gilakjani, 2012).

On a functional level, Baddeley & Lieberman (1980) proposed that visuo-

spatial sketchpad in the model of working memory need to be segregated

independently. Both visual and spatial are distinct subcomponents by arguing the

example of a blind man is good in spatial awareness although he is not seeing. The

roles of central executive and episodic buffer are also remained unclear and have

difficulties to be described onto the underlying neuroanatomy. The model of working

memory is only well-defined in conceptual system and lacked of empirical evidence

support.

Working memory limits can be defined as strength as well as limitation.

Humans demonstrate the capability to hold and manipulate ideas in mind. However,

the small capacity of working memory seemed like restricted humans to maximize

performance. On the contrary, someone is of the opinion that humans need this

limitation as humans would be possible overwhelmed with too much information to

process at once if working memory capacity were unlimited (Gilakjani, 2012).

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WORKING MEMORY IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Meta-analytic review of several studies showed the high correlation of

working memory capacity with learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy

(Daneman & Merikle, 1996). Alloway & Alloway (2010) conducted a longitudinal

study and come out with the result that a child’s working memory at 5 years old is

able to predict the level of academic achievement in future. Good working memory

performance in primary school children is expected to have better performance in

mathematical problem solving (Swanson & Beebe-Frankenberger, 2004). Last but not

least, the predictive power of working memory is not limited to mathematics.

Daneman & Merikle (1996) also reported that working memory is a strong predictor

of comprehension. Storage capacity of working memory is important to involve the

manipulation of words and sentences. Therefore, the children who have below age-

appropriateness level of education achievement are at risk to have working memory

issue. As previously described, working memory impairments are allied with poor

learning abilities.

FACTORS AFFECT POOR WORKING MEMORY

(i) Stress

Arnsten et al. (1998) found out that exposure to acute and chronic

psychological stress will lead to more profound working memory deficits. fMRI

research supported that acute stress increase levels of catecholamines and reduce the

functional connectivity in prefrontal cortex (Qin et al., 2009). The more stress

perceived by a person in his life, the lower the efficiency of his working memory

ability in performing cognitive tasks. After that, it will affect the higher-order thinking

abilities, which lead to far-reaching problems for a person and his social environment.
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(ii) Alcohol

The blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response is correlated with the

regions of brain (i.e., basal ganglia, thalamus) when performing a working memory

task. Adverse outcomes of performance on working memory were reported after

alcoholic drinks were taken. This is because there is a significant decrease in BOLD

response for those who start the drinking habit since adolescents (Weiland et al.,

2012). In the long run, binge drinking also reported to affect one’s cognitive

performance (Crego et al., 2009). Those youngster who indulge in binge drinking

experience, encounter difficulties in carrying out tasks involving frontal lobe

functions, particularly on working memory, planning, attention and decision making.

They are also at high risk expose to mental disorders.

(iii) Gender

The gender-specific patterns associate with differences in neuromaturation and

hormonal fluctuations. For example, female pubertal stage is 1-2 year earlier and

contributes to development of cortical gray matter (Lenroot & Giedd, 2010).

Therefore, it is not surprise to found out that different gender gives certain results on

particular components of working memory especially during puberty development.

Besides that, females were reported to perform better on verbal working memory

tasks after consuming alcohol. In contrast, their spatial working memory tasks were

relatively poor compared to male (Squeglia et al., 2011).

(iv) Aging

Boissoneault et al. (2014) reported that older age group is at the higher risk to

show poor working memory performance after consuming alcoholic drinks. This can

be explained that overall cognitive functions are significant deteriorating in older age

(Hertzog et al., 2003). Working memory contents decay easily due to slow processing
 PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 18

of cognitive functions (Salthouse, 1996). Nonetheless, West (1996) also elaborated

that the working memory performance is highly depends on the pre-frontal cortex.

Pre-frontal cortex deteriorates more than other brain regions as humans grow old.

Hence, the performance of working memory is expected declining when aging.

(v) Neurological Disorders

There are evidences showed that children with learning disabilities constitute

below average level of working memory abilities. Children with Attention-Deficit/

Hyeractivity Disorder (ADHD) were relatively weak in working memory and other

specific executive function domains. Some authors have even proposed that

symptoms of ADHD arise from a general weakness in executive control including the

poor working memory ability (Willcutt et al., 2005). Yet, it is still unclear that

whether working memory impairment leads to ADHD or vice versa, or if there is

other possible connection (Clark et al., 2007). Working memory impairment among

children with dyslexia and developmental coordination disorder also supported by the

research conducted in 2006 (Wagner, 2006; Alloway et al., 2009). Other neurological

issues such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease

showed signs of less working memory functions when the diseases become more

serious (Lee, 2010; Liu, 2014; Poudal, 2015).

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE WORKING MEMORY

Chunking is one of the well-recognized strategies to enhance working memory

abilities. For this strategy to succeed, a person must learn to string and code received

information into chunks (generally about 7± 2 elements in a chunk) (Miller , 1956).

Several such chunks can be combined into a higher-order chunk and form a hierarchy
 PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 19

of chunks, whereby the capacity of working memory abilities increase. The chunks

will then be unpacked layer by layer during the retrieval process (Gobet, 2000).

Jaeggi et al. (2008) established the dual n-back working memory training task

and reported that the training task was correlated with improvement on working

memory and other aspects of cognitive performance such as fluid intelligence. The

training task requires trainees to react when visual and/or auditory stimuli match

stimuli from n steps earlier in the sequence. The load factor n can be regulated

according to different level of difficulty. Yet, there were researchers doubt about the

durable effect of this dual n-back working memory training due to deficiency of the

evidence.

Other activities that can train a larger area of the brain map will also help to

develop a person’s working memory capacity. For instance, music training enhanced

central executive control processes in working memory and achieved the therapeutic

effects among patients who suffered from neurological disorders (Vandervert, 2015).

Muller-Townsend (2009) also found out that there was a positive relationship between

the memory for dance movement and the general abilities of memory span. Last but

not least, short-term maximal treadmill exercise was also reported to have a good

outcome in improving the working memory capacity after recovery from exercise

(Christine et al., 2009).

Environment support is equally important for those who suffer from poor

working memory. Cognition training is very tiring. Supportive environment will at

least lessen emotion burden and motivate those who are suffering from working

memory problem to keep on trying in order to obtain a better working memory

capabilities. For example, teacher is required to be aware the warning signs of

working memory failure. By understanding the child’s difficulty, teacher can

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empathize and will look for necessary guideline to assist the child. Teacher can

modify the classroom activities and reduce the amount of given information so that

the child can learn better. Repetition is important to strengthen the child’s working

memory ability. Memory aids (such as flash cards, diagrams, pictures etc.) will serve

as reminders to help the child to complete the task more independent rather than

always rely on teacher’s supervision. Behavioural training can be applied to promote

desirable behaviour. Parents are encouraged to have regular discussion with teacher

and tried to apply useful strategies to benefit the child at home.

CONCLUSION

Working memory is essential in our daily lives as it is highly involved in our

cognitive systems. Working memory was also found to develop into an increasingly

complex structure of higher order thinking skills in adolescence and onwards life

(Greiff et al., 2015). Multi-component model of working memory from Baddeley and

Hitch (1974) has served as a basic reference for us to understand better about working

memory. Although there are limitations in the proposed model, we can’t denied that it

really guide educators to help students perform better in their academic. Different

factors that will affect working memory performance were listed. Meanwhile,

strategies to improve the abilities of working memory were also suggested.

Supportive environment is evenly essential to help those who suffer from poor

working memory. More specific research can be carried out to target more specific

area of either auditory working memory or visual working memory. The more details

of the research will definitely benefit the particular needs of minority groups who are

still struggling in this world.

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