Working memory is subject to quick decay and displacement

• Working memory decays rapidly – we lose the information there in ~30sec unless we actively work to keep them available.

  • This trait is an issue in UX design when the user has to carry over some information from one part of the product to another.
  • Designers should ask "What information are we asking users to keep in their working memory, and how can we help them keep it from decaying?"
  • People work around this by using "phonological loop" – subvocally repeating the information to keep it from decaying.
  • Good products use their technical memory to free up users' working memory for other things than e.g. remembering a phone number they want to dial.

• Information in working memory are displaced rapidly – when working memory is at its capacity, existing information is pushed out as new information arrives.

  • Displacement is the problem behind distractions – when we e.g. receive a notification, that new information pushes out some of whatever we were storing in our working memory previously. And it's hard to get back to it.
    • People actively detect signal from noise and actively choose if something enters their working memory (// still unsure if this is completely correct)

• The process of transferring information from working memory to long-term memory is called "encoding". Most information we perceive is lost before it's encoded.

  • Working memory is the true bottleneck in this sense.

• Due to this bottleneck of working memory, multitasking isn't really possible: Multitasking is often just monotasking with rapid switching

Tags: design psychology

ID: 2021-1105-0640

References: Evans – Bottlenecks ch. 7