The Importance of Working Memory in Sports

Working memory is a component of executive functioning that temporarily holds, manipulates, processes, and stores information. The diagram below shows you all of the aspects of sports performance that working memory effects (dotted arrows and boxes represent hypothetical links that have to be established by future research) and we have gone in-depth on a couple of them including choking under pressure and skill acquisition/execution in seperate blog posts.

Working memory is required for more thoughtful/creative actions (taking directions from a coach while still having to make a play in a hectic environment) compared to more reflexive actions (reacting to a basketball hitting the rim). While more research needed, research has shown participants with higher working memory capacity were better at maintaining attention and avoiding distraction, which are essential cognitive abilities in sports. 

Reacting to more complex stimuli (colors, numbers, Stroop, etc.), multiple stimuli (see three stimuli then react to them), or doing other cognitive tasks (n-back task) can be a more effective way to train working memory compared to simply reacting to directional arrows (which can still be useful for improving the processing speed underlying WM). Also, making the physical action and location of the stimulus as similar as possible to games is the best way to have this training transfer to competition.

If you are an athlete looking to get effective working memory training by yourself, you can do so by downloading the free SwitchedOn® Training app using the buttons below! It works by providing randomized stimuli, currently in the form of colors, numbers, and arrows, that you react to with specific actions or movements, to help take your physical and cognitive performance from good to GREAT!

Source: Furley, P. A., & Memmert, D. (2010). The role of working memory in sport. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3(2), 171-194.