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The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory | 
 enlarge | Author: Torkel Klingberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $14.90
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Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 23224
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0195372883
Dewey Decimal Number: 153
EAN: 9780195372885
ASIN: 0195372883
Publication Date: November 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: N20090102043309S
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Product Description
As 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
 A bit tedious January 5, 2009
Nicole S. Urdang (Western New York)
I agree with all the reviewers who thought this was a quality book with interesting material, but I didn't think it was a fun read. Despite the honest, self-explanatory title, I was expecting something a bit more on information overload than on working memory.
Considering all the scientific material, it was easy to understand, and elucidating. For me, it was simply too much information ( I know that sounds like a joke, but I mean it). A long article would have quenched my desire on this topic.
 Fascinating December 23, 2008
voiceoverthewall.com (United States)
I have always had a fascination with Psychology, but chose Information Technology as a career. When I made this decision over ten years ago, I could have never imagined how interconnected these fields are. This book is a perfect illustration of this.
This is first and foremost a psych book. Although it is relatively short, it covers a lot of material. It is a quick and easy read, nonetheless. It does get a little heavy at times, citing studies and cases, but this should come as no surprise for a psychology student. Also of no surprise is its tendancy to speak pf the brain in computer terms. You'll find it asking questions about and examining our "multitasking" abilities", and "parallel processing" capabilities. In addition, the common topics of brain capacity, coginitive abilities, and limits come into play.
One of the interesting aspects of this book is the way the author weaves together elements of history, psychology, science, computer science, and current research. This mix makes for a totally enjoyable book that anyone in a variety of fields may find interesting. More to the point, if you have an interest in general psychology or computers and want to understand yourself just a little bit more, this is a great book.
Woulda written the review earlier, but I forgot. December 18, 2008
mateo52 (State College, Pa.)
Evidently, while the author compares the human brain to computer quad core processing units, I'm working with an early eighties 8086 chipset. However, that alludes to one of the most attractive aspects of this book. It easily could have become an a dry scholarly tome that the lay reader could only take in miniscule doses but Mr. Klingberg drops humorous tidbits throughout the text and writes in a conversational manner that I believe to be approachable for most readers. His style in no way diminishes scientific relevancy nor is his style a barrier to acceptance as a serious academic effort with theoretical positions subject to peer replication and corroboration.
The brain, its' capacities and capabilities remain a mysterious, yet fertile frontier for exploration. Prof. Klingberg's book primarily addressed the areas of memory and retention. He notes over the last 40,000 years the human brain has remained remarkably constant while the quantity of information to which we are typically exposed has increased exponentially. He explores the variables types of attention such as stimulus driven and controlled, pointing out whereas we regale in the capacity for multitasking, multiple testing methodologies have indicated once we past the threshold of seven individualized pieces of information, we generally struggle with retention of information in the working memory. In that vein, he provides a reasonably clear and concise differentiation between working memory and short term memory.
Over the last two decades I have been intrigued by the explosion in ADD/ADHD diagnoses. Prof. Klingberg relates the increasing frequency to the limitations of "working memory" in a very informative yet easily comprehensible writing style for the scientifically challenged like me. Although the text takes the form of a research study most probably appropriate for undergraduate level science courses, I think anyone wondering why they can no longer remember why they came to the supermarket can find some helpful insights, although if the objective is to find a self-help book to improve specific abilities, there is not much assistance provided here.
forced me to rethink my views on multitasking November 20, 2008
Jim
Through Amazon's Vine review program I received an "uncorrected advance reading copy" of The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. As a non-scientist with a background in the (visual) arts, I was pleased to find that this book is reader-friendly and not overly technical.
In addition to having a background in the arts, I am a long-time meditator who has worked as an instructor for mindfulness-based stress and pain management courses in hospitals. I have often suggested that course participants be wary of employer demands that they engage in multitasking (or "simultaneous performance") which is, I've suggested, a euphemism for "doing too many things at once." I wrongly thought that multitasking, as opposed to "mindfully" doing one thing at a time, could only lead to stress.
After reading The Overflowing Brain I appreciate that the relationship between multitasking and stress is contingent rather than necessary. As author Torkel Klingberg makes plain, information occurs when demands on our "working memory capacity" exceed our capacity, and the result is stress. (At the risk of oversimplifying, working memory is our capacity to keep information in focus for brief periods.) But demands on our working memory capacity can also be too low, and when this is the case "we become bored and apathetic." The ideal is when "demand and capacity, or skill and challenge, are in a state of equilibrium." When this ideal is realized, we may enter into a state of "flow" as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (I understand that his last name is pronounced cheeks-sent-me-high), former head of the University of Chicago psychology department, and, as Klingberg puts it, we may "develop to our full capacity."
Overall, The Overflowing Brain is another in a string of recent educational books that elaborate on one or another aspect of brain plasticity, and that reinforce the idea that brain training through "conscious intensive practice of a certain function" is the key to developing our brains.
Really interesting subject November 13, 2008
Gagewyn (United States)
The Overflowing Brain discusses working memory.
Part of the book is spent defining what exactly the term "working memory" means. Basically it is very short term memory, for example, how many numbers a person could repeat back after hearing those numbers once.
After laying out a groundwork for defining/understanding the concept, each chapter goes into a new facet of working memory: attention deficit disorders, the drugs used to treat them, and what this tells us about how the brain works, different mental exercises and what parts of the brain these enlarge or reduce, the effect of computer games on the brain, and finally just the huge amount of information that exists and what this might imply given that our ancestors had far less of it to grapple with.
I found this book to be fascinating and each chapter to be a quick read. Each chapter had something interesting which sparked my curiosity. That said, someone could conceivably find the topic dry, and there are portions that talk about brain structure and chemistry from a more technical side. I thought the author did a good job of breaking this down, but even so I zoned out at times (rarely).
If the promotional material appeals to you, then I recommend this book. It was a quick read and had a consistent quality delivery.
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