Working Memory Quotes

But I'm not as bad as Al Pacino - he doesn't even know what month it is half the time when he's working.

Remember that we can only in our forebrains handle 5-7 items. Our backbrains can handle massive amounts. So when you're given a problem, think about it before you go sleep, and chances are you can solve it by the next morning.

Attention is the stuff that memory is made of, and memory is accumulated genius.

Memory changes as a person matures.

Task switching is hard because we do not control what is on our mind. Despite our efforts, the original task continues to occupy our mental bandwidth. Although we can control where our time goes, we cannot fully control how our bandwidth is allocated.

I need to be thinking about a few things at once. I think it actually helps because you're cross-fertilizing yourself.

The processing capacity of the conscious mind has been estimated at 120 bits per second.

I've got a terrible memory; it's probably because I'm always concentrating on what I'm doing now.

...consciousness can keep only a few images in full clarity at one time, and even this clarity fluctuates.

Short term memory is not good.

Memory was such a worthless thing, really. Nothing it dealt with was attainable. It was concerned with phantom acts and feelings, with all that was uncapturable except in thought. It was without satisfaction.

Busy people all make the same mistake: they assume they are short on time, which of course, they are. But time is not their only scarce resource. They are also short on bandwidth. By bandwidth I mean basic cognitive resources - psychologists call them working memory and executive control - that we use in nearly every activity.

We used to think that you could pay attention to five to nine things at a time. We now know that's not true. That's a crazy overestimate. The conscious mind can attend to about three things at once. Trying to juggle any more than that, and you're going to lose some brainpower.

The conscious mind can only pay attention to about four things at once. If you've got these nagging voices in your head telling you to remember to pick up the laundry and call so-and-so, they're competing in your brain for neural resources with the stuff you're actually trying to do, like getting your work done.

The most effortful forms of slow thinking are those that require you to think fast.

Brain studies of mental workouts in which you sustain a single, chosen focus show that the more you detach from what's distracting you and refocus on what you should be paying attention to, the stronger this brain circuitry becomes.

I have creative ADD.