The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working MemoryAs the pace of technological change accelerates, we are increasingly experiencing a state of information overload. Statistics show that we are interrupted every three minutes during the course of the work day. Multitasking between email, cell-phone, text messages, and four or five websites while listening to an iPod forces the brain to process more and more informaton at greater and greater speeds. And yet the human brain has hardly changed in the last 40,000 years. Are all these high-tech advances overtaxing our Stone Age brains or is the constant flood of information good for us, giving our brains the daily exercise they seem to crave? In The Overflowing Brain, cognitive scientist Torkel Klingberg takes us on a journey into the limits and possibilities of the brain. He suggests that we should acknowledge and embrace our desire for information and mental challenges, but try to find a balance between demand and capacity. Klingberg explores the cognitive demands, or "complexity," of everyday life and how the brain tries to meet them. He identifies different types of attention, such as stimulus-driven and controlled attention, but focuses chiefly on "working memory," our capacity to keep information in mind for short periods of time. Dr Klingberg asserts that working memory capacity, long thought to be static and hardwired in the brain, can be improved by training, and that the increasing demands on working memory may actually have a constructive effect: as demands on the human brain increase, so does its capacity. The book ends with a discussion of the future of brain development and how we can best handle information overload in our everyday lives. Klingberg suggests how we might find a balance between demand and capacity and move from feeling overwhelmed to deeply engaged. |
Contents
The Stone Age Brain Meets the Information Flood | |
The Information Portal | |
The Mental Workbench | |
Models of Working Memory | |
The Brain and the Magical Number Seven | |
Simultaneous Capacity and Mental Bandwidth | |
Wallaces Paradox | |
Brain Plasticity | |
A Cognitive | |
The Everyday Exercising of Our Mental Muscles | |
Computer Games | |
The Flynn Effect | |
Neurocognitive Enhancement | |
The Information Flood and Flow | |
Notes and References | |
Does ADHD Exist? | |
Other editions - View all
The Overflowing Brain : Information Overload and the Limits of Working ... Torkel Klingberg No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
ADHD adults Age brain Alan Baddeley attention deficit brain activity brain area Brain Research cerebral changes children with ADHD Cognitive Neuroscience complex computer games concurrent performance control group control of attention controlled attention correlation cortices CroMagnon D’Esposito diagnosis distracted dopamine drugs dualtasking emails encoded environment evolution example exercise fluid intelligence Flynn effect fMRI fMRI study frontal lobe function GoldmanRakic hyperactivity hypothesis increase information flood intraparietal sulcus Journal Karolinska Institutet Klingberg limitations longterm memory look Magical Number Seven measure meditation memory capacity memory tasks memory training methylphenidate Miller’s monkey myelinization neocortex nerve cells Neural Neurocognitive Enhancement neuronal activity neurons Neuroplasticity neuroscientists Overflowing Brain parietal lobe percent plasticity powers of concentration Prefrontal Cortex problems psychological psychologists Raven’s matrices remember retain information Ritalin scanner Science scientists sensory shortterm memory simultaneous task skills solving specific stimulation stimulusdriven attention Stone Age brain subjects visuospatial Westerberg