full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Peter Doolittle: How your "working memory" makes sense of the world

Unscramble the Blue Letters


When we think about working mremoy, we have to realize that this limited capacity has lots of different ipmacts on us. Have you ever walked from one room to another and then forgotten why you're there? You do know the solution to that, right? You go back to that original room. (Laughter) Have you ever forgotten your keys? You ever forgotten your car? You ever forgotten your kids? Have you ever been invevlod in a conversation, and you realize that the conversation to your left is actually more iteenitnsrg? (Laughter) So you're nodding and you're sniimlg, but you're really paying attention to this one over here, until you hear that last word go up, and you realize, you've been asekd a question. (Laughter) And you're really hoping the answer is no, because that's what you're about to say. All of that talks about working memory, what we can do and what we can't do. We need to rilzaee that working memory has a leiimtd capacity, and that working memory capacity itself is how we negotiate that. We negotiate that through strategies.

Open Cloze


When we think about working ______, we have to realize that this limited capacity has lots of different _______ on us. Have you ever walked from one room to another and then forgotten why you're there? You do know the solution to that, right? You go back to that original room. (Laughter) Have you ever forgotten your keys? You ever forgotten your car? You ever forgotten your kids? Have you ever been ________ in a conversation, and you realize that the conversation to your left is actually more ___________? (Laughter) So you're nodding and you're _______, but you're really paying attention to this one over here, until you hear that last word go up, and you realize, you've been _____ a question. (Laughter) And you're really hoping the answer is no, because that's what you're about to say. All of that talks about working memory, what we can do and what we can't do. We need to _______ that working memory has a _______ capacity, and that working memory capacity itself is how we negotiate that. We negotiate that through strategies.

Solution


  1. involved
  2. memory
  3. impacts
  4. interesting
  5. limited
  6. asked
  7. smiling
  8. realize

Original Text


When we think about working memory, we have to realize that this limited capacity has lots of different impacts on us. Have you ever walked from one room to another and then forgotten why you're there? You do know the solution to that, right? You go back to that original room. (Laughter) Have you ever forgotten your keys? You ever forgotten your car? You ever forgotten your kids? Have you ever been involved in a conversation, and you realize that the conversation to your left is actually more interesting? (Laughter) So you're nodding and you're smiling, but you're really paying attention to this one over here, until you hear that last word go up, and you realize, you've been asked a question. (Laughter) And you're really hoping the answer is no, because that's what you're about to say. All of that talks about working memory, what we can do and what we can't do. We need to realize that working memory has a limited capacity, and that working memory capacity itself is how we negotiate that. We negotiate that through strategies.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
working memory 17
memory capacity 5
current goal 3
high levels 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
working memory capacity 5

Important Words


  1. answer
  2. asked
  3. attention
  4. capacity
  5. car
  6. conversation
  7. forgotten
  8. hear
  9. hoping
  10. impacts
  11. interesting
  12. involved
  13. keys
  14. kids
  15. laughter
  16. left
  17. limited
  18. lots
  19. memory
  20. negotiate
  21. nodding
  22. original
  23. paying
  24. question
  25. realize
  26. room
  27. smiling
  28. solution
  29. strategies
  30. talks
  31. walked
  32. word
  33. working