The study of working memory and academic performance of Faculty of Health Sciences students

The objective of this study was to determine the difference of working memory between gender, program, year of study, supplement intake, memorizing technique, study styles and sleep hours and also the association between working memory and Cumulative Grade Point Assessment (CGPA) among students in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).. Altogether 157 students were given questionnaires that consisted of two sections which contained demographic data and working memory standard test such as Visual Working Memory Test and Arithmetic Test. Most of the students had the medium level of working memory score (40 % to 70 %). Almost 24 % students had excellent working memory score (exceeds 70 %) while 17 % students scored poorly (less than 20 %) in the tests. There was no significant (p > 0.05) differences of working memory score among gender, year and program. While sleeping hours, memorizing technique and study style also showed not significantly (p > 0.05) difference to student's working memory. The result also showed that there was no significantly (p > 0.05) correlation between working memory score and CGPA. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer reviewed under responsibility of the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011