Working memory and its relation to key outcomes in the real world

想象一下，有人告诉你一个电话号码，你必须记住，直到几秒钟后才能把它写下来。成功完成这项任务将依赖于“工作记忆”，这是一个存储和处理你当前正在完成的任务信息的系统。工作记忆是我们的精神记事本；对许多日常活动至关重要，包括决策和遵循指示。虽然大多数人都在努力记住工作记忆中的大量信息，但大约十分之一的人会遇到特殊的工作记忆困难。现有的研究表明，有这些困难的孩子有学业表现不佳的风险，通常被描述为注意力不集中。然而，在我们目前的理解中，有一些关键的限制。首先，虽然工作记忆差的孩子被描述为注意力不集中，但目前还不清楚这些孩子通常会表现出哪些具体行为（例如，容易分心，经常犯错）。其次，尽管工作记忆困难似乎增加了儿童时期教育成绩差的风险，但是否有长期影响尚不清楚。例如，患有工作记忆障碍的儿童是否有GCSE成绩不佳和/或成年后就业不佳的风险？我们也缺乏证据表明，糟糕的工作记忆如何影响成年人的行为和愿望。最后，一个重要的问题是，工作记忆差的人往往不为人所知，这使他们无法得到支持。虽然存在正式的工作记忆评估，但这些评估通常只针对那些被怀疑工作记忆较差的人。这种方法是有问题的，因为研究表明，从业者（例如教师）不善于识别可能从工作记忆评估中受益的人。因此，需要进一步的研究来确定识别这些个人的其他方法。现有知识的这些重要差距使我们无法向政策制定者或从业者（例如教师）提出关于如何识别和支持工作记忆不良的个人的建议。幸运的是，有一个独特的数据集可以用来解决我们理解中的这些重要空白：雅芳父母与儿童纵向研究（ALSPAC）。这项研究追踪了14000多名参与者从出生到成年的生活。在队列中，工作记忆在童年（10岁）和成年（24岁）期间被评估。其他广泛的数据也可获得，包括问卷调查结果和教育成果。本项目将使用ALSPAC数据集来检查：工作记忆差的儿童和成人经常表现出哪些注意力不集中/过度活跃的行为？这与工作记忆不差的人相比如何？儿童期和成年期较差的工作记忆会增加不良结果的风险吗？更具体地说，我们将研究童年时期有工作记忆障碍是否会增加日后学业成绩差和就业结果差的风险。我们还将调查成年期工作记忆困难是否会增加就业结果不佳的风险。如果糟糕的工作记忆确实会增加学业和/或就业结果不佳的风险，为什么会这样呢？工作记忆差的人是否表现出更多的注意力不集中/过度活跃的行为，从而增加了学业/就业结果不佳的风险？学校或成人已经获得的信息（例如先前的学业成就）能否确定可能从正式的工作记忆评估中受益的个人？然后，我们将与应用教育研究中心和布拉德福德研究学院密切合作，影响国家政策和实践，并广泛分享我们的发现（例如与教育专业人士、职业治疗师）。

Imagine someone tells you a phone number which you must remember until you can write it down a few seconds later. Successful completion of this task would rely on "working memory", a system which stores and processes information for tasks that you are currently completing. Working memory is our mental notepad; essential for many everyday activities including decision-making and following instructions. Whilst most people struggle to remember a large amount of information in working memory, approximately one in ten individuals experience particular working memory difficulties. Existing research has demonstrated that children with such difficulties are at risk of performing poorly academically and are often described as inattentive. There are, however, key limitations in our current understanding. Firstly, although children with poor working memory have been described as inattentive, it is unclear what specific behaviours these children often show (e.g. being easily distracted, frequently making mistakes). Secondly, although working memory difficulties seem to increase the risk of poor educational achievement in childhood, it is not clear whether there are longer-term consequences. For instance, are children with working memory difficulties at risk of poor GCSE outcomes and/or poor employment outcomes in adulthood? We also lack evidence as to how poor working memory affects the behaviours and aspirations of adults. Finally, an important issue is that individuals with poor working memory often remain unidentified, preventing them from receiving support. Although formal working memory assessments exist, these are often only conducted on individuals who are suspected of having poor working memory. This approach is problematic, as research has demonstrated that practitioners (e.g. teachers) are poor at identifying people who may benefit from working memory assessments. Further research is thus needed to establish other ways of identifying such individuals.These important gaps in existing knowledge prevent us from making recommendations to policymakers or practitioners (e.g. teachers) about how to identify and support individuals with poor working memory. Fortunately, there exists a unique dataset that can be used to address these important gaps in our understanding: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This study has followed the lives of over 14,000 participants from birth to adulthood. Within the cohort, working memory was assessed during childhood (10 years of age) and adulthood (24 years of age). A wide range of other data are also available, including questionnaire responses and educational outcomes. This project will use the ALSPAC dataset to examine:1. What inattentive/hyperactive behaviours do children and adults with poor working memory often show? How does this compare to individuals without poor working memory?2. Does poor working memory in childhood and adulthood increase the risk of poor outcomes? More specifically, we will examine whether having working memory difficulties in childhood increase the risk of poor academic achievement and poor employment outcomes later in life. We will also investigate whether having working memory difficulties in adulthood increase the risk of poor employment outcomes.3. If poor working memory does increase the risk of having poor academic and/or employment outcomes, why is this? Do individuals with poor working memory display more inattentive/hyperactive behaviours, which then increases the risk of poor academic/employment outcomes?4. Can information that schools or adults already have access to (e.g. prior academic achievement) identify individuals who may benefit from formal working memory assessments?We will then work closely with the Centre for Applied Education Research and Bradford Research School to influence national policy and practice and share our findings widely (e.g. with educational professionals, occupational therapists).