Question 1

Suppose that you are calculating your recent expenses, and you are adding up five 2-digit numbers in your head. 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

Accepted Answer

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 2

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?

Accepted Answer

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

Question 3

Baddeley's model of working memory points out that

Accepted Answer

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 4

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

Accepted Answer

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 5

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,

Accepted Answer

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 6

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

Accepted Answer

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 7

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

Accepted Answer

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

Question 8

According to the discussion of working memory, the phonological loop

Accepted Answer

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 9

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

Accepted Answer

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 10

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?

Accepted Answer

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 11

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

Accepted Answer

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 12

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

Accepted Answer

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 13

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

Accepted Answer

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

Question 14

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 15

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

Accepted Answer

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

Question 16

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

Accepted Answer

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 17

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

Accepted Answer

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 18

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

Accepted Answer

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 19

According to Atkinson and Shiffrin's classic theory,

Accepted Answer

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 20

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Exam 4: Working Memory