7 Research-Backed Ways to Boost Working Memory in Math

It took a series of aviation disasters for safety experts to realize the critical role of working memory when pilots and technicians juggle competing tasks.

In some cases, technicians made apparently minor errors while mentally calculating cargo weights. In other cases, a routine, but critical, preflight step was accidentally skipped. “Information in short-term memory can be lost very quickly through interference, distraction, or simply by being replaced with new information,” noted experts at Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the counterpart to the U.S.’s National Transportation Safety Board.

Too often, they continued, engineers relied on short-term memory—things like “remembering a specific hydraulic pressure, or the tightening torque required for a specific retaining nut.” A better method, according to the safety experts, was to use a checklist to compensate for the shortcoming of “perishable memory.”

In math class, of course, the stakes are lower. But a tough spatial problem, like computing the volume of a cylinder, also pushes the limits of working memory and lead to errors—requiring students to hold complex visual models in mind as they consider possible mathematical solutions. Complicated word problems, meanwhile—which are meant to mirror complex, real-world circumstances—involve deconstructing and pruning language of irrelevant or distracting details in search of the proper mathematical calculations lurking beneath the surface. Juggling that much information often makes for mental clutter, not clarity.

In a 2025 study, researchers found that there are simple strategies which can lower the pressure on working memory, allowing students to “offload” or simplify a math problem so that critical parts of it can be isolated, recalled more easily, or viewed in finer detail. By sketching diagrams, underlining key details, arranging information into categories, and using simple annotations like arrows to draw attention to important relationships, for example, word-problem solving performance improved across the board, especially for students who struggled most with math in the first place. 

Working memory is a bottleneck: Students may grasp the concepts, but stumble because they can’t keep track of all the moving parts. Here are 7 research-based strategies to free up mental space so learners can focus on making sense of the problem.

1. Break multi-step word problems into smaller parts

Word problems may feel opaque to students, but they build “mathematical thinking that goes beyond the basic arithmetic,” researchers explain in a 2020 study. Clearing away the debris to discover the principles and operations that reveal the underlying math problem is difficult—to lighten the load on working memory, have students rework the problem:

Rewrite the language: When tackling a word problem, fourth-grade math teacher Blair Pacheco starts by stripping the numbers and treating it as a story. Who are the characters? What are they doing? The short-term memory formerly allocated to tracking the actions of the people and objects involved can then be trained on the underlying math.

Jot things down: A judicious use of scratch paper allows students to offload intermediate steps, partial answers, important details, and formulas or procedures, freeing up mental resources as they work their way through a math problem. In a 2025 study, students who jotted on scratch paper “improved to a greater extent than those who did not offload,” achieving an effect size 83 percent higher than their peers who solved problems mentally.

Mark crucial info: To sharpen their word problem skills, elementary school teacher Victoriana Savas encourages students to first identify the word problem’s central question, and then use visual annotations such as underlining, highlighting, and crossing out to reorganize the information. “Chunking the problem into smaller parts reduces the cognitive load on comprehension,” writes Savas. “From there, annotating the problem allows students to home in on different parts, so they can identify what, exactly, is being asked of them.” These small moves boost math performance by helping students strip the problem down to its mathematical core, a 2025 study found.

2. Use visual organizers and anchor charts

Working memory doesn’t just include verbal information—it also contains visual and spatial information, such as the mental image of a right triangle, the shape of a parabola, or the grid of a multiplication table. 

In a 2022 study, researchers explain that working memory has multiple components, one of which is the visuospatial sketchpad, which “is a sub-system for the temporary storage of visual and spatial information.” In math, where students may need to hold formulas, diagrams, and multiple steps in mind, this resource is taxed quickly. Teachers can ease this strain by posting visual aids around the room—word walls listing math terms, anchor charts showing place value, and diagrams with formulas for solving perimeter and area, for example—that serve as an extension of students’ memory, keeping track of information they might otherwise lose. 

Scaffolds “help students to offload some of their thinking onto paper so that they have less ‘new stuff’ to hold in their working memory at once,” writes science teacher Ian Kelleher. For example, a note card with quotations can help students focus on the mechanics of writing an essay, while a reference sheet with facts, dates, or equations can free up working memory space so students can think more deeply. As students master the concepts, the scaffolds should be phased out, Kelleher suggests.

3. Provide problem-solving routines

“Many struggling math students can enhance their memory of processing steps if they name each step of a math process as it is being performed,” experts at the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity explain. “This strategy requires students (and teachers) to slow down, but the investment of time increases the student’s ultimate grasp and retention of the mathematical concept.”

For example, when adding fractions, students can say the steps—find a common denominator, adjust the numerators, add across, and simplify—providing a step-by-step routine that helps them navigate the problem without overloading working memory. While beneficial for students with dyslexia, this approach is broadly helpful for any students who struggle with math problems, according to a 2024 study.

In Fei Liu’s eighth grade math classroom, problem-solving routines give students a structured way to begin making sense of math. “One of the biggest things I see when a kid sees a math question is they put a number on a page and they just start doing it,” says Liu. For example, students solving a typical word problem—“Dan and Pam have 30 dollars between them, and Dan has 4 more dollars than Pam. How much do they each have?”—can sketch a diagram to represent each character and their dollar amounts, and then ask themselves questions like, “What is the problem about?”, “How do I set it up correctly?”, and “How do I model my thinking?”

These problem-solving routines—conceptualize the problem, plan a strategy, carry it out, and check the result—provide students with a set of widely applicable, portable tools. Instead of sitting with confusion or guessing, students move step-by-step through a familiar sequence, which reduces the mental load of deciding what to do next. Over time, these repeated moves become habits, making problem-solving more efficient.

4. Use manipulatives and visual models

Whether it’s finger counting, using blocks, or drawing on a number line, tangible expressions of mathematical concepts make abstract ideas more concrete. Students can see relationships more easily—for example, four groups of three are the same as three groups of four—helping them visualize mathematical concepts in a way that’s much clearer than symbols and numbers on a page.

In a 2019 study, researchers explain that “interacting with manipulatives supports working memory by extending the mental workspace,” allowing students to quickly shift their attention to different parts of the problem without losing track. When kids aged 7 to 9 were given small, numbered tokens to move around while solving simple addition problems, they outperformed their tokenless peers, scoring 72 percent accuracy compared with 62 percent. It’s a form of “cognitive offloading” that helps students focus on the “underlying conceptual knowledge,” the researchers explain.

“Physical or digital manipulatives like snap cubes, pattern blocks, and relational rods are all tools that can help students bring mathematics into being—a process called representation. Teachers can use decks of cards, dice, or counting objects to help students practice their basic skills,” writes K-12 teacher Matthew Oldridge. For example, students can practice multiplication facts up to 6 times 6 using a pair of dice, while a deck of cards—designate red suits as negative and black suits as positive—can help with adding and subtracting integers.

5. Rely on familiar contexts that don't require additional background knowledge

“Working memory is not an isolated workspace; rather, it constantly interacts with our long-term memory, activating knowledge and combining it with incoming information to form our thoughts and understandings,” researchers explain in a 2025 study. Driving in a familiar neighborhood feels like being on autopilot, for example, since long-term memory supplies the route, landmarks, and traffic expectations, freeing up working memory for other tasks like having a conversation. Navigating in an unfamiliar country, however, taxes working memory as you spend more time deciphering road signs, traffic rules, and local customs.

Similarly, math problems that use out-of-the-ordinary contexts are harder to solve. If young students are pretending that they’re shopping at a grocery store, an unfamiliar product—buying cardamom instead of apples—places extra burden on their working memory. “There can be considerable variability among students in these everyday experiences (e.g., shopping and cooking), and we cannot assume that all or most students have good knowledge in even quite simple everyday contexts that are often present in mathematical tasks,” researchers explain in a 2024 study.

Familiar contexts can lower the cognitive load and boost engagement, as well. “There’s a local ice cream shop called La Michoacana in my Memphis, Tennessee, school community that I often visit and where I see many of my students,” writes elementary math teacher Neven Holland. “When I give my students mathematical problems that center around familiar landmarks such as this, I witness more engagement and more buy-in to persevere through problem-solving. Familiarity builds confidence in my students to tackle real-life math scenarios, and they’re able to see math as a useful tool to understand their communities.” 

Similarly, high school math teacher José Vilson saw his students struggling with a unit on slope, so he sketched a nearby hill with stick figures at different points and asked them which ones would go faster. The simple activity sparked discussions and provided a starting point that “gave that math relevance and belonging in their own lives,” Vilson says.

6. Review and Connect to Prior Learning

If students are busy trying to recall essential methods or operations, a large share of working memory will be tied up in reconstructing old knowledge—which can sometimes lead to mixed results.

The more accessible and organized prior knowledge is, the less strain is placed on working memory. Conducting a quick review of key ideas, equations, math terms, and strategies can prime students’ long-term memory, surfacing the knowledge they’ll need to connect new material with what they already know.

“Students are going to forget what you taught them if you don’t keep putting it in your learning,” says fourth grade teacher Leah McGinnity. That’s why she makes retrieval practice a regular activity, prompting students to review past concepts—place value and fractions, for example—so the knowledge stays fresh and doesn’t drain working memory resources when students try to extend or apply their learning within the domain.

7. Use worked examples

In a 2023 meta-analysis encompassing 43 studies, researchers found that worked examples—math problems shown with fully worked-out solutions—had “a positive and moderate effect on students’ mathematics learning across the school years.”

It’s like giving students a blueprint, instead of expecting them to build a house from scratch. In the study, the researchers point out that students often flail when trying to solve difficult math problems, spending much of their time hitting dead ends as they search for the right approach. 

It may seem like you’re handing students the answers (and sometimes you do want them to engage in productive struggle), but it’s really just a scaffold—you’re providing guidance on the first step, and students still need to practice applying those steps, develop mental problem-solving models, and eventually develop independence. “The worked example reduces the cognitive load on students; it chunks the learning down into actionable steps,” writes elementary school teacher Victoriana Savas. Eventually, students can reference the worked example or set it aside entirely as they start solving their own math problems.