Deck 4: Working Memory

Question 1

George Miller's (1956) classic article, on the magical number seven, introduced the concept of a chunk. According to Miller's terminology, a chunk

A) should be measured in terms of the number of items that can be spoken within a 30-second interval.
B) is the basic unit in short-term memory.
C) is the portion of the brain in which short-term memories are stored.
D) is the maximum limit of your short-term memory.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Imagine that you have volunteered to participate in some psychology research. The researcher tells you to look at several words briefly and then count backwards for about half a minute before recalling those words. The researcher is probably measuring

A) sensory memory.
B) long-term memory.
C) short-term memory.
D) semantic memory.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Suppose that a professor asks the students in her class to say their names out loud (one at a time) on the first day of class. Then she asks them to write down as many of their classmates' names as they can recall. Then she constructs a graph that shows "Number of correct responses" on the Y-axis and "Serial position of the name" on the X-axis. The shape of the graph

A) will be a straight line, with the greatest accuracy on the first items.
B) will be a straight line, with the greatest accuracy on the last items.
C) will be an upside-down U-shaped line, with the greatest accuracy on the middle items.
D) will be a U-shaped line, with the greatest accuracy on the first and last items.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Chapter 4 discussed research on the recency effect. How is this research related to short-term memory?

A) The final words in a list are recalled accurately because they are still in short-term memory.
B) There is a clear-cut difference between pattern perception and short-term memory.
C) The material can pass directly into long-term memory, without first entering short-term memory.
D) The recency effect showed that the capacity of short-term memory is extremely large.

Question 5

Suppose that a friend asks you what movies you have seen within the past year. Your recall is especially accurate for the movies you saw during the last 2 weeks. This phenomenon is called

A) chunking.
B) the recency effect.
C) the primacy effect.
D) proactive interference.

Question 6

According to the introduction of Chapter 4, one important function of working memory is

A) to provide a template that makes it easier to recognize objects.
B) to store knowledge about a wide variety of topics.
C) to provide a large storage space for all your current sights, sounds, and other perceptual experiences.
D) to coordinate your current mental activities.

Question 7

According to the discussion at the beginning of the chapter on working memory (Chapter 4),

A) most psychologists now believe that working memory has an unlimited capacity.
B) working memory allows you to keep information accessible so that you can use it on a variety of current tasks.
C) psychologists now agree that working memory and long-term memory have very different functions.
D) working memory is the brief storage period prior to short-term memory in the classical information-processing models.

Question 8

Suppose that you are listening to an announcer read the names of the winners in an athletic event. You recall the last four names accurately, but you can't recall the names that appeared earlier in the list. This phenomenon is called as

A) the primacy effect.
B) proactive interference.
C) chunking.
D) the recency effect.

Question 9

Working memory is useful in our daily lives because

A) it is flexible, so that you can work on a variety of tasks within a short time period.
B) it has a strict limit; you, therefore, cannot confuse one task with another task.
C) it accurately stores items for up to 10 minutes, even when you are working on another task.
D) it has no upper limit.

Question 10

Suppose that you are having trouble recalling the information for a question about Baddeley's theory because the information about Atkinson and Shiffrin's theory (which you learned earlier) keeps interfering. This phenomenon is called

A) proactive interference.
B) the recency effect.
C) the primacy effect.
D) chunking.

Question 11

According to the chapter on working memory, what was nontraditional about George Miller's article on the "magical number seven"?

A) Research in a wide variety of cross-cultural settings continues to confirm that working memory is limited to seven items.
B) Researchers had previously thought that the capacity of visual memory had no strict limits.
C) Miller's research helped to persuade psychologists that the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory was inadequate.
D) Miller's article emphasized active mental processes, rather than simply focusing on the stimulus and the response.

Question 12

One of the most widely cited articles in psychology is George Miller's (1956) article on the size of short-term memory. According to your text, this article was important in cognitive psychology because

A) it clearly established the rigid limits of short-term memory's size.
B) it demonstrated that short-term memory was distinctly different from long-term memory.
C) it focused on a cognitive process-mentally converting the stimulus-at a time when most psychologists focused on people's external behavior.
D) it showed that the key to the limits of short-term memory was the amount of time required to pronounce the stimuli.

Question 13

Solange is trying to recall her friend's new zip code, which is 14454. She remembers it by saying, "My birthday is September 14th; my father is 45 years old, and my nephew is 4 years old." Apparently, Solange

A) has arranged her friend's zip code so that it can best be stored in the phonological loop.
B) has arranged her friend's zip code so that it can best be stored in the visuospatial sketchpad.
C) has created chunks out of the zip code.
D) is trying to avoid acoustic confusions.

Question 14

According to Chapter 4, working memory is especially important because

A) it provides a perfect copy of the physical stimulus, for example, a visual image that accurately represents the words on a page.
B) it demonstrates that there is a clear-cut limit to the number of items we can store for a short time.
C) it is the first process that occurs after the stimulus has entered long-term memory.
D) it keeps some items active, so that we can use these items when we are working on a relevant task.

Question 15

Suppose that you are calculating your recent expenses, and you are adding up five As you begin to calculate the final sum, you feel that you've reached the limits of your memory. This strain can be traced to

A) the difficulty of keeping all this material in your working memory.
B) the difficulty of transferring material from working memory to long-term memory.
C) a conflict between top-down and bottom-up processing.
D) material that is larger than the span of sensory memory.

Question 16

Suppose that your professor makes a graph that shows the relationship between the order in which a topic was covered in the course and the class's accuracy on test items for that topic. This graph would be called as a

A) serial position curve.
B) free recall curve.
C) memory span curve.
D) Brown/Peterson & Peterson curve.

Question 17

As Chapter 4 discusses, John Brown, Lloyd Peterson, and Margaret Peterson created a classic technique for assessing short-term memory. In this technique, people saw some stimuli, counted backwards by threes during the delay period, and then tried to recall the original stimuli. The results of their research showed that

A) people could recall up to 10 stimuli, after a delay period of 3 minutes.
B) people systematically recalled only 10% of the stimuli, on each trial in the study.
C) at the beginning of the session, people could recall only 20% of the items; by the end of the session, they recalled about 40% of the items.
D) after many previous trials, people had difficulty recalling the stimuli, even with only a short delay.

Question 18

A friend has just told you his cell phone number, and you repeat it to yourself several times as you search for a pen to record it. The technique you are using to remember the number is called

A) rehearsal.
B) the serial position effect.
C) release from proactive interference.
D) the working-memory approach.

Question 19

Suppose that you have been studying some terms related to your course in biopsychology. After you have been studying for about 15 minutes, you find that you are having more trouble learning and remembering new terms. This problem is an example of

A) the episodic buffer.
B) the chunking phenomenon.
C) subvocalization.
D) proactive interference.

Question 20

Imagine that you are tutoring high school students, and you have quickly presented 12 new terms to them. They are likely to recall the first few terms most accurately because of

A) the primacy effect.
B) the rehearsal effect.
C) the chunking effect.
D) the recency effect.

Question 21

Baddeley's model of working memory had a different focus from the earlier approaches to short-term memory because

A) he emphasized that working memory is useful in holding related items in our memory simultaneously.
B) he devised a precise operational definition for every component of working memory.
C) he examined a much more limited set of processes, compared to earlier models.
D) he focused much more on the visual characteristics of stimuli than on the auditory characteristics of the stimuli.

Question 22

Which of the following students has the best understanding of the concept "release from proactive interference"?

A) Maura: "Students are likely to use simple repetition when learning new material; if you teach them a memory strategy, their memory improves."
B) Ilya: "The phrase refers to the strategy people use to move a particular stimulus from working memory to long-term memory."
C) Alessandro: "People are typically not conscious of their learning strategies; however, if they can focus their attention on their memory, they can avoid interference from other stimuli."
D) Tara: "As you learn a series of stimuli from the same category, memory will become less accurate; if you switch to a new category, memory will improve."

Question 23

Which of the following students provides the best information about short-term memory in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?

A) Albena: "Items in your short-term memory are often lost within 30 seconds."
B) Martin: "The information in short-term memory is automatically transferred to long-term memory."
C) Candace: "Short-term memory serves as a large storage area for all sensory memories."
D) Peter: "Short-term memory emphasizes only the visual characteristics of the stimulus."

Question 24

Your textbook discussed the research on release from proactive interference in working memory. One study used five different categories of words, such as fruits and occupations. The results of this study indicated that

A) encoding in working memory is almost exclusively acoustic.
B) long-term memory can supplement the acoustic basis of working memory.
C) material in working memory can be stored in terms of meaning.
D) material in working memory that has been stored in terms of sound is easier to recall after a brief delay, compared to material that has been stored in terms of meaning.

Question 25

In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of short-term memory, the concept called "control processes"

A) emphasizes iconic memory.
B) emphasizes information that is presented too quickly to be remembered.
C) is a strategy that helps you remember items more accurately.
D) is a strategy that involves vision, instead of hearing.

Question 26

Compared to the earlier view of short-term memory, the current view of working memory

A) argues that memory is much more fragile.
B) proposes that working memory is simply an early stage of long-term memory.
C) states that information is continuously being manipulated and changed.
D) suggests that the Atkinson-Shiffrin model should be supplemented by at least five additional kinds of brief memory.

Question 27

What is the current status of the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?

A) Almost all of the recent research supports the model.
B) Only the concept of sensory memory is still of interest to researchers.
C) The theory has been completely abandoned, because there is no research support for the distinction between short-term memory and long-term memory.
D) Some studies support the distinction between short-term memory and long-term memory, but other studies suggest that these two forms of memory are actually similar

Question 28

According to Atkinson and Shiffrin's classic theory,

A) short-term memory and long-term memory are distinctly different processes.
B) items stored in short-term memory are fairly permanent.
C) rehearsal is necessary in order to move material from sensory memory to short-term memory.
D) there are no strict limits in the capacity of short-term memory.

Question 29

According to the research about factors that affect the capacity of working memory,

A) the fact that people tend to substitute acoustically similar items during recall illustrates that acoustic factors are more important than semantic factors.
B) there is no evidence for the influence of semantic information on working memory.
C) the studies on release from proactive interference demonstrate that semantic factors can influence working memory.
D) many studies have demonstrated that the information in working memory does not have acoustic properties.

Question 30

Chapter 4 discussed a classic study by Wickens and his colleagues (1976) in which each of five groups of participants learned a series of words belonging to one category (e.g., "occupations" or "meats"). On the final trial, they all switched to words belonging to a new category ("fruits"). What did the results of this study show about the recall for this final set of words?

A) Contrary to expectations, semantic similarity had no influence on recall.
B) Contrary to expectations, participants explained that they stored these final words in terms of visual images.
C) Participants in all five groups showed no release from proactive interference.
D) Recall on the final set of words was most accurate when the previous items had belonged to a different semantic category.

Question 31

Suppose you are accustomed to driving a car in which the switch for the windshield wipers is located to the left of the steering wheel. Then you borrow a friend's car. To use the wipers on this car, you must activate the switch to the right of the steering wheel, but you keep reaching toward the left. You are demonstrating

A) proactive interference.
B) the phonological loop.
C) the effects of "magical number seven."
D) a real-life version of the Brown/Peterson & Peterson test of memory.

Question 32

According to Baddeley and his colleagues,

A) short-term memory is a more useful concept than working memory because it emphasizes the short duration of this stage in a memory model.
B) working memory is much more rigid and inflexible than previous theorists had suggested.
C) the purpose of working memory is to hold information briefly, and then process and use this information.
D) working memory is the verbal, activated component of long-term memory.

Question 33

Which of the following students' statements best characterizes Baddeley's view of working memory?

A) Sam: "Working memory has four separate components, each with its own specialized kind of cognitive activity."
B) Lois: "Working memory consists of two components, short-term working memory and long-term working memory."
C) Kyung: "Working memory is an activated state of the more general long-term memory store."
D) Manuel: "Current research shows that there really is no important difference between working memory and long-term memory."

Question 34

How would you characterize Alan Baddeley's description of working memory?

A) It is a large storehouse of information, much like a huge university library.
B) It is a solid, stable, industrious machine that systematically processes information.
C) It is a highly active area in which information is being manipulated and changed.
D) It is a movie screen, continuously registering a stream of complex, colorful images.

Question 35

According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model,

A) almost all the stimuli that pass through sensory memory will end up in long-term memory.
B) we need to identify the biological correlates of memory.
C) memory can be represented as a series of stages in which information is passed between separate storage areas.
D) an item is more likely to be stored in memory if it is accompanied by insight.

Question 36

Baddeley proposed that his approach to working memory differed from earlier approaches because

A) it emphasizes the differences between working memory and long-term memory.
B) it emphasizes that working memory is an essential component for numerous cognitive tasks.
C) it focuses on hearing, rather than vision.
D) it focuses on the differences between human memory and the memory of other primates.

Question 37

What evidence suggested to Baddeley that working memory has several components?

A) The research on release from proactive interference
B) Complex computer simulations
C) Modeling using the parallel distributed processing approach
D) Research showing that people can rehearse words and make spatial judgments at the same time

Question 38

Suppose that you have been studying your French vocabulary words for several hours, and you are making an increasing number of mistakes. Then you switch to reviewing the new terms for your upcoming biology test, and your performance is noticeably better. You are experiencing

A) the serial-position effect
B) thought suppression.
C) release from proactive interference.
D) the recency effect.

Question 39

Which of the following students provides the best overview of the current status of the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?

A) Flora: "It lost popularity after Miller's article on the 'magical number seven' failed to support the concept of short-term memory."
B) Nicola: "This model continues to be important because recent research clearly supports the distinction between short-term memory and long-term memory."
C) Bruce: "The research has not clearly demonstrated that short-term memory is different from long-term memory."
D) Miguel: "The model now plays a major role in the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach."

Question 40

Baddeley chose the metaphor of a "workbench" to represent his model of working memory because

A) his model was straightforward, just like all the components of an actual workbench.
B) his model emphasizes the spatial components of working memory, and a workbench emphasizes spatial projects, rather than verbal projects.
C) rehearsal is important in memory, and rehearsal is also important when you think about projects that would require a workbench.
D) working memory focuses on a wide variety of projects, and a workbench can also handle a wide variety of projects.

Question 41

Amy recently saw a Broadway musical. As she listens to the soundtrack in her car a few days later, she forms clear visual images of the scenes from the show. The part of the brain that is most activated while she does this is the

A) left cerebral hemisphere, especially the frontal and occipital lobes.
B) right cerebral hemisphere, especially the frontal and parietal lobes.
C) cerebellum.
D) lateral hypothalamus.

Question 42

According to Baddeley's approach to working memory, the visuospatial sketchpad

A) is similar to the phonological loop because each has a limited capacity.
B) is similar to the phonological loop because each is primarily handled by the left hemisphere of the brain.
C) is different from the phonological loop, because the visuospatial sketchpad does not have a limited capacity.
D) is different from the phonological loop, because the phonological loop does not have a limited capacity.

Question 43

In a study on working memory, one group of participants repeated a sound, thereby blocking acoustic coding for other material. This research showed that

A) working memory disappeared completely.
B) when acoustic coding was blocked, people often used visual coding.
C) acoustic coding was even more likely in long-term memory than in working memory.
D) semantic coding was the dominant mode in working memory, whereas acoustic coding was more likely in long-term memory.

Question 44

Suppose that you are trying to improve your pronunciation of French by listening to French popular songs. You try to imitate the French pronunciation at the same time that you translate the words into English. According to Baddeley's model,

A) you can manage both tasks simultaneously without a decrease in accuracy.
B) you'll probably have a difficult time on these tasks, because both tasks involve the phonological loop.
C) you'll probably have a difficult time, because the pronunciation involves the visuospatial sketchpad, and the translation involves the phonological loop.
D) you will have an easy time if you ignore the central executive, but a difficult time if you use the central executive.

Question 45

You will have difficulty reading your textbook if you are simultaneously singing the words to your favorite song. How would Baddeley explain this phenomenon?

A) The words from the textbook and the words from the song will interfere with each other in the phonological loop.
B) The visuospatial sketchpad is overcrowded, because both of these tasks have a strong visual component.
C) The central executive cannot handle two verbal tasks at the same time.
D) The singing prevents the words in your textbook from passing directly from semantic memory into long-term memory.

Question 46

Suppose that you have been watching a figure skating competition. You close your eyes and you try to remember how the last skater performed her final jump, then glided to the center of the rink and finished with a spin. The component of your working memory that is now most active is

A) the phonological loop.
B) the visuospatial sketchpad.
C) the episodic buffer.
D) the central executive

Question 47

Imagine that you are trying to remember a reservation code that someone told you a minute ago. The number was 5834DM, but you remember it as 5834BN. This kind of error is called

A) subvocalization.
B) an episodic buffer.
C) an acoustic confusion.
D) release from proactive interference.

Question 48

Suppose that you are trying to read the name of a psychologist who studies creativity, "Csikszentmihalyi." You find that you are silently pronouncing his name as you read it, because

A) your visuospatial sketchpad can maintain only a limited amount of information.
B) challenging words are automatically shunted off to the central executive.
C) the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop are both activated, because of the spatial nature of the unfamiliar letter sequence
D) the phonological loop plays a role in reading, as well as in memory.

Question 49

One reason that the visuospatial sketchpad is more challenging to study than the phonological loop is that

A) it's difficult to find ecologically valid situations in which the visuospatial sketchpad is relevant.
B) participants are more likely to guess the correct answer, compared to studies that focus on the phonological loop.
C) participants may spontaneously provide a verbal label for a shape, so the task may actually use the phonological loop.
D) visual information must be presented more slowly than phonological information.

Question 50

Baddeley's model of working memory points out that

A) the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad is limited.
B) the limits of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad depend upon one another; if one process is active, the other cannot handle new material.
C) all material must pass from the phonological loop into the visuospatial sketchpad.
D) the phonological loop simply stores material, whereas the visuospatial sketchpad actively reinterprets that information.

Question 51

Amy recently saw a Broadway musical. As she listens to the soundtrack in her car a few days later, she forms clear visual images of the scenes from the show. This may cause her to experience difficulty driving, because of the limited capacity of her

A) central executive.
B) visuospatial sketchpad
C) phonological loop.
D) episodic buffer.

Question 52

You are trying to retain-in your working memory-a mental picture of a stranger's face. According to Baddeley, you are using your

A) visuospatial sketchpad.
B) episodic buffer.
C) phonological loop.
D) central executive.

Question 53

Suppose that a study examines whether people have trouble creating a mental image of a famous painting while they are watching a cartoon on television. You would expect to find that

A) contrary to Baddeley's theory, the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad clearly work together on most tasks.
B) people have trouble on a task that employs the visuospatial sketchpad, if they are simultaneously performing another visual task.
C) watching the cartoon actually enhances your accuracy when you use your visuospatial sketchpad to create a mental image of a painting.
D) people have trouble on this task unless they transfer all information to the episodic buffer.

Question 54

Suppose that you are trying to perfect your accent in Spanish. Your teacher just pronounced the word "ferrocarril," and you are trying to keep the "rolling r" sound in your memory long enough to pronounce it yourself. In Baddeley's model, you are most likely to use your

A) visuospatial sketchpad.
B) long-term memory.
C) central executive.
D) phonological loop.

Question 55

According to the neuroscience research on the phonological loop,

A) studies using the single-cell recording technique in humans have located the phonological loop in the auditory cortex.
B) the left temporal lobe and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks.
C) the right temporal lobe and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks.
D) no systematic activation patterns have yet been discovered.

Question 56

Chapter 4 described research by LJRomero Lauro and her colleagues, which used a method called "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation." These authors concluded that

A) working memory really is a storehouse that has a limit of 5-9 items.
B) the left parietal lobe and the left frontal lobe are both relevant when you are reading long sentences with complex grammar.
C) the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere are equally involved in language comprehension.
D) the left hemisphere is relevant for long sentences, whereas the right hemisphere is relevant for complex sentences.

Question 57

Baddeley's model of working memory proposes a feature called the "phonological loop." This feature allows you to

A) solve geometric problems.
B) store the sound of someone's name.
C) rotate mental images.
D) determine whether one number is larger or smaller than another.

Question 58

Suppose that you are looking at a complex, detailed painting of a dog. Which of the following working-memory tasks would interfere most with your ability to form a clear image of this painting?

A) hearing the sound of a barking dog
B) creating an auditory image of a favorite song
C) creating a mental image of a dog that you actually see every day
D) adding three single-digit numbers together

Question 59

The discussion of working memory examines research on "acoustic confusions." How are acoustic confusions relevant to working memory?

A) When material is processed in the phonological loop, similar-sounding items can be confused with one another.
B) When material is processed in the visuospatial sketchpad, similar-sounding items can be confused with one another.
C) The central executive has several component processes, including the task of resolving acoustic confusions.
D) This research suggests that the phonological loop plays a relatively minor role in working memory.

Question 60

According to the discussion of working memory, the phonological loop

A) is useful when you learn a foreign language.
B) primarily activates the right hemisphere of the brain.
C) primarily receives information from the episodic buffer.
D) has a large capacity when you are learning new vocabulary words.

Question 61

Baddeley's model of working memory now includes a feature called the "episodic buffer." According to Baddeley, this feature

A) is an important component of the central executive.
B) keeps a permanent record of the associations between the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop.
C) allows you to make connections among the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and information from long-term memory.
D) preserves emotional characteristics that are connected with earlier events.

Question 62

Based on Chapter 4's discussion of depression and working memory, a clinical psychologist should know that people with depression

A) have trouble on a wide variety of tasks involving the central executive.
B) seldom report any cognitive problems.
C) have much more trouble on tasks involving the visuospatial sketchpad than on tasks involving the phonological loop.
D) have trouble when the phonological loop is involved in two simultaneous tasks.

Question 63

Chapter 4 discusses characteristics of individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). According to this discussion, people with ADHD are especially likely to have difficulty with which of the following components of working memory?

A) The phonological loop
B) The visuospatial sketchpad
C) The episodic buffer
D) The central executive

Question 64

According to the Baddeley's revised model of working memory, one major purpose of the episodic buffer is to

A) store musical information (such as pitch and tones) for brief periods of time.
B) manage the decisions that are too complicated for the central executive.
C) coordinate the meaning and the visual appearance of written text.
D) provide temporary storage for information from long-term memory, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad.

Question 65

Neuroscientists who have examined the visuospatial sketchpad have discovered that

A) visual tasks typically activate the right hemisphere, whereas spatial tasks typically activate the left hemisphere.
B) visual and spatial tasks typically activate the right hemisphere of the brain.
C) visual and spatial tasks are apparently converted into a verbal code, because they primarily activate the left hemisphere of the brain.
D) there is no clear correspondence between visuospatial tasks and the patterns of brain activation.

Question 66

In the working-memory model, which of the following cognitive activities would the central executive be most likely to perform?

A) Representing the information from a geometry problem
B) Deciding which items on a list should be remembered and which should be forgotten.
C) Actively transferring the information from working memory into sensory memory
D) Listening to a series of words in random order.

Question 67

The chapter on working memory discussed several studies about individual differences in working memory. Which of the following students provides the best information about how working memory is related to academic skills?

A) Samantha: "People who have an unusually large capacity in their episodic buffer are likely to earn poor grades in school."
B) Aroona: "People who are especially skilled on a task that uses the central executive are likely to score high in reading comprehension."
C) Sanjay: "The research failed to support Baddeley's model; most academic tasks require the equal participation of all four components of working memory."
D) James: "The research failed to support Baddeley's model; there is no relationship between central-executive skills and a wide variety of other measures that should be related to the central executive and a wide variety of academic skills."

Question 68

Researchers in neuroscience, over the past two decades, have spent a great deal of time working on the

A) executive attention network.
B) central executive processor.
C) phonological loop.
D) visuospatial sketch pad.

Question 69

Baddeley's current model of working memory includes a feature called the episodic buffer. According to Baddeley's description, the episodic buffer

A) contains material that has not yet reached our conscious awareness.
B) has a smaller capacity than any of the other components of working memory.
C) briefly holds material from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.
D) stores our very earliest memories from early childhood, which have an important effect on other components of working memory.

Question 70

Your textbook discusses research about the relationship between depression and performance on tasks involving the phonological loop. This research showed that

A) people with depression performed significantly worse than people without depression.
B) people with depression actually performed significantly better than people with depression.
C) there was no difference in the performance of the two groups, once the researchers corrected for the fact that the depressed group had lower vocabulary skills.
D) people with depression tended to transform the stimuli into visual patterns that activated the visuospatial sketchpad

Question 71

People with _____ often show problems in daily functioning because their excessive worrying takes up so much of their working memory capacity that it reduces their ability to perform cognitive tasks.

A) major depression
B) ADHD
C) schizophrenia
D) GAD

Question 72

Chapter 4 discusses neuroscience research on the central executive. According to this discussion, the central executive

A) is primarily controlled by brain structures located below the cortex.
B) is primarily controlled by brain structures at the back of the cortex.
C) is primarily controlled by portions of the frontal lobe.
D) apparently does not have a consistent connection with any part of the brain, at least according to the current research.

Question 73

People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder often have problems because they are impulsive and inattentive. The component of working memory that is most likely to be relevant in these problems is

A) the episodic buffer.
B) the central executive.
C) the visuospatial sketchpad.
D) the phonological loop.

Question 74

In the discussion of working memory, why did Teasdale and his colleagues (1995) conclude that daydreaming is processed by the central executive?

A) People daydreamed more creatively when they were instructed to use their central executive.
B) People typically used their sensory receptors for this task, so the central executive was automatically activated.
C) People could generate a sequence of random numbers more successfully if they were not daydreaming.
D) People reported that they could not daydream in vivid detail if they were simultaneously engaged in another task that required the central executive.

Question 75

Christopher and MacDonald compared the working memory capacities of people with and without major depression. They found that, in general, depressed people performed

A) better on tasks involving the phonological loop.
B) better on tasks involving the visuospatial sketchpad.
C) worse on tasks involving the phonological loop, but better on tasks involving the central executive.
D) worse on tasks involving either the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, or central executive.

Question 76

McCabe and colleagues note that the concept of the central executive in cognitive psychology is very similar to the concept of _______ in the cognitive neurosciences.

A) the prefrontal executive attention network
B) hemispheric specialization
C) buffering
D) brain plasticity

Question 77

You have set aside 2 hours to study for an exam in this course, and you are currently deciding to review the new terms, writing down any terms that you cannot define. Which feature of Baddeley's theory handles this planning activity?

A) The phonological loop
B) The visuospatial sketchpad
C) The episodic buffer
D) The central executive