You've heard the expression: It goes in one ear and out the other. For individuals with sub-optimal auditory working memory, this is pretty close to the truth.
What is auditory working memory (AWM) exactly? It is one part of the two part working memory system. One part is the visual-spatial sketchpad and the other is the verbal loop, often called the phonological loop. It is the latter that is usually referred to as AWM. Relevant information is held in this auditory "storage" while a cognitive activity is completed (e.g. a multi-step math problem or remembering a teacher's lecture long enough to get pertinent information written in the notes).
When information comes into our auditory system, we must actively rehearse what we have heard because this information rapidly decays after one or two seconds. In order to repeat the information to ourselves, we must use selective attention, screening out irrelevant sounds to attend to the significant information at hand. Research has shown that if short term memory is low, we have a hard time selecting what we wish to hear. In other words, selective attention doesn't work so well when AWM is low.
AWM is critical for every academic subject because it affects reading, reading comprehension, and math performance. It is also essential for problem solving because we have to hold the problem in our short term memory long enough to make sense of it.
What is the behavioral profile of a child with low AWM? In the classroom, teachers describe these children as inattentive, easily distracted, forgetting what they have learned, forgetting instructions, not completing tasks, making careless mistakes, and having difficulty in solving problems.
If you're thinking this sounds a lot like attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you're not the only one. A great deal of research in the last few years has shown that low auditory working memory is indeed associated with ADD/ADHD. Interestingly, some research has shown that stimulant medications can enhance one's auditory-verbal and visual-spatial working memory. However, there is no long term benefit. In other words, the working memory is improved only as long as the medication is in the system.
One approach that has been used to help students with low short term memory is to teach material in a way that makes fewer demands, especially on AWM. While this helps students in specific courses, it has no long term benefit for working memory. In contrast, programs designed to improve AWM (and visual spatial memory as well) have demonstrated long term benefit to the point of actually increasing fluid intelligence (the ability to reason quickly and think abstractly)!
These programs have been used successfully for individuals with schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, dyslexia, and ADD/ADHD. Most programs consist of strategies designed to "train the brain." It's much like training the muscles and cardiovascular system with physical exercise. It requires frequency, intensity, and duration. In the case of auditory working memory, a minimum of two to three hours per week for several months will usually bring the working memory up substantially, sometimes by several grade levels.
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