Introduction

(5 minutes)

Welcome your year 12 psychology A level students to their lesson on working memory.

Explain the importance of working memory in everyday life, how it helps with many cognitive functions and how if our working memory is impaired, this can create challenges in many different areas such as education, employment, and every day life.

Show a video about working memory as an introduction to the lesson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULj8ybBrOhU

Lesson Outline

(30 minutes)

Explain the three basic components of working memory – the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Give students a dictionary task to show how working memory is used in language tasks - https://coglab.stanford.edu/Computation/dictionary.htm

Give students a working memory task to test their digit span – http://coglab.stanford.edu/Computation/digit-span.htm

Explain how working memory can be improved using cognitive enhancement strategies.

Questioning

(10 minutes)

Discuss the results of the dictionary and working memory task with the students.

Ask them what strategies they will use to help improve their working memory.

Assessment

(5 minutes)

Give students a quiz about working memory – http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/WMQuiz.html

Differentiation

(5 minutes)

Give visual learners a set of cards with different mnemonic strategies to help them remember information – https://www.teachervision.com/memory-strategies/resources/58337.html

Give auditory learners audio clips to explain the concepts of working memory – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pxwvd

Plenary

(5 minutes)

Discuss with students how they can use their knowledge of working memory in their everyday lives, and the effects that impairments in working memory can have.

Get students to summarise the key points they have learned in the lesson.

Allow students to answer any outstanding questions they may have.

Give students a worksheet to consolidate their learning – https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=87935&d=1474217367

Conclude the lesson by reassuring them that improved memory skills are achievable.