Peter Doolittle makes public speaking on Ted Talks appear as if its an effortless 'walk in the park' kind of task; he's funny, charming, engaging and informative. I find it incomprehensible to imagine how anybody could fail to recognise the qualities of this his professional expertise and delivery about 'working memory.'
Besides demonstrating a vast range of subject knowledge, Doolittle appeared to have captivated his entire audience ... I felt both able and compelled to join in as the session transmogrified into a whole new level from that of a lecture to an interactive workshop approach. To maximize the understanding of his audience, Doolittle engaged 'us' in an activity that aimed to prove that our working memory is something we are always aware and he made the critical point that since information bombards us at tremendous speeds, the need to improve our working memory ability is critical to success.
I concur then that 'working memory' is about our capacity to make informed choices, to source and apply what we think might be useful tools to accomplish our goal targets. As Doolittle explains, the information we receive needs processing either through 'telling someone', writing it down or creating imagery but in all cases, we need to be "...doing something with it,"(Doolittle, 2013) in order for us to make sense of the world.
Challenge yourselves and check your working memory is functioning at a slightly higher than perfunctory level: Highly recommend you watch and share this Ted Talk and its certainly an area worth exploring further, in my opinion.
How about this for a parting quote: "everything we do is an approximation of sophistication ... if we're not processing life, we are not living it!" (P. Doolittle, 2013)
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