Monday, March 03, 2008

Working memory and school learning research - a embarressment of riches

Today there was an FYI post to the NASP list regarding a newsletter article that discussed the importance of working memory and school learning. I'm always a bit skeptical of popular press articles that address complex psychological research...esp. articles that tend to rely on one source (as I have been that "one" source in such articles). That being said, it is nice to see the popular press attending to an important contemporary research issue....working memory.

Unfortunately for school-based practitioners, the sheer volume of working memory research published the past few decades is impossible to read and synthesize with ease. For example, I just ran a literature search of the IAP Reference Database looking for articles that had the keywords "working memory" in their record. I found over 1,300 articles! (click here to see/download all references)

Fortunately, Dr. Milt Dehn has taken a stab at summarizing the extant working memory/school learning research in a new book (Working Memory and School Learning). I saw it at the NASP convention in February and can't wait to get a copy (HINT to Milt and/or his publisher---how about a complimentary copy for giving this book a nice plug?). I have known Milt for many years and he is a model school psychologist scientist-practitioner. He is a "bridger"...one who has the unique ability to translate research and theory into understandable presentations and writings that are understandable to those who work in the schools.

PS - If you plan to purchase this book, I would recommend supporting the author of the book as much as possible...thus, place your orders via Dr. Dehn's private consulting biz.

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