Deck 3: Working Memory

Question 1

What is the term for the amount of information that can be maintained in working memory?

A)capacity
B)term
C)knowledge
D)objectiveness

Answer 1

A

Question 2

With training, people can increase their digit span by focusing on:

A)concurrent retrieval.
B)developing complex chunking strategies.
C)using constant maintenance rehearsal.
D)using elaborative rehearsal.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The Duration of Information in Working Memory is defined as the amount of time information will remain in working memory if not:

A)maintained.
B)rehearsed.
C)exercised.
D)elaborated.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The echoic memory system contains what type of memory?

A)visual sensory
B)primary memory
C)auditory sensory
D)participating sensory

Question 5

Effect explaining that longer words are more difficult to maintain in working memory than are shorter words is:

A)syllable length.
B)parietal length.
C)digit length.
D)word length

Question 6

Which of the following represents the amount of time to say aloud the items being rehearsed in working memory?

A)span time
B)auditory time
C)iconic time
D)pronunciation time

Question 7

Memory system that holds literal information for a fraction of a second to allow cognitive processing is:

A)short-term.
B)long-term.
C)sensory.
D)vertical.

Question 8

The term used for processing the meaning of information in working memory is:

A)maintenance rehearsal.
B)elaborative rehearsal.
C)learning.
D)iconic rehearsal.

Question 9

This 1960 experiment used a grid for a very brief flash.What type of memory function was being measured?

A)primary memory
B)sensory memory
C)long-term memory
D)short-term memory

Question 10

Most estimates of the duration of working memory are around:

A)3-8 seconds.
B)30-35 seconds.
C)1-7 seconds.
D)15-30 seconds.

Question 11

A task that prevents maintaining of working memory is:

A)maintenance prevention.
B)rehearsal prevention.
C)elaborated prevention.
D)exercise prevention.

Question 12

The neural structures and which processes make up the working memory.

A)cognitive
B)behavioral
C)memory
D)structural

Question 13

The term for repeating information over and over is called:

A)maintenance rehearsal.
B)rehearsal.
C)elaborative rehearsal.
D)attention rehearsal.

Question 14

The term for new information enters working memory and displaces information already present is:

A)unelaborated.
B)nonmaintained.
C)unrehearsed.
D)interference.

Question 15

What task measures a list of digits presented by an experimenter?

A)hearing and sight
B)sensory learning
C)retrograde learning
D)digital span

Question 16

Primary memory is a term to mean what type of memory?

A)long-term
B)medial
C)ordinal
D)short-term

Question 17

The term used for a basic unit of information in working memory which may be decomposable into more information.

A)cap
B)digit
C)span
D)chunk

Question 18

Cognitive Psychologists seldom use the term for this type of memory.

A)long-term
B)short-term
C)medium memory
D)working memory

Question 19

The iconic memory system contains what type of memory?

A)visual sensory
B)short-term sensory
C)functional memory
D)long-term sensory

Question 20

Actively maintaining the items in working memory by repeating them over and over is called:

A)rehearsal.
B)maintenance rehearsal.
C)elaborative rehearsal.
D)working rehearsal.

Question 21

When can we expect to see interference between visual and auditory working memory tasks?

A)when the tasks are so easy that each task can be performed by the other system
B)only when the concurrent tasks occur simultaneously
C)when the tasks are difficult enough that they require allocation of attentional resources by the central executive
D)when participants expect that visual images will interfere with visual processing

Question 22

An experimenter presents a list of words for participants to free recall in any order.She uses two conditions-one in which the words are read slowly and one in which the words are read fast.You should expect her to find:

A)reduced recency effects for both lists.
B)the list read slower should show no recency effect.
C)the list read faster should show reduced primacy effects.
D)reduced primacy effects for both lists.

Question 23

If new information enters working memory and displaces information already present, this type of information is called:

A)primacy.
B)cognitive.
C)rehearsal.
D)interference.

Question 24

Angie is a participant in an experiment on the serial position curve.One of the words on the list she hears is "lemon." Later, when asked to recall the list, she erroneously reports "lime." The word "lemon" was most likely:

A)the very last word on the list.
B)written in bold letters, causing her to experience a Von Restorff effect.
C)one of the first three items of the list.
D)the only word from the category "fruit" on the list.

Question 25

In working memory, the sub-system responsible for working memory for sounds is the:

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

Question 26

The serial position curve measures:

A)the number of digits recalled in a digit-span task.
B)the likelihood of correct free recall of items as a function of the input order at presentation.
C)the ability to order a serial list.
D)the order of input of the phonological loop.

Question 27

An experimenter presents a list of words for participants to free recall in any order.Immediately after the list is presented, the participants must do math problems before they recall.Relative to a condition in which recall is immediate, the participants who did math problems will show:

A)a decrease in their primacy effect but not their recency effect.
B)a decrease in their recency effect, but not their primacy effect.
C)no differences.
D)both primacy and recency will decrease by approximately the same amount.

Question 28

Waugh and Norman (1965) presented participants with a sequential list of 16 digits.After viewing all 16 digits, the participants were presented with one of the digits that they had seen in the list.They found that:

A)the fewer items that preceded the probe digit, the better memory was for that probe items.
B)interference was not a factor in this experimental design.
C)the fewer items that preceded the probe digit, the better memory was for that probe items.
D)the fewer items that followed the probe digit, the better memory was for the item that preceded it.

Question 29

When examining errors made during retrieval in a serial position curve experiment, the tendency is that:

A)people make errors based on meaning during the recency portion of the curve.
B)people make errors based on meaning during the primacy portion of the curve.
C)people make errors based on sound during the primacy portion of the curve.
D)people never make errors for recency items because they use working memory.

Question 30

The observation that memory is usually superior for items at the beginning of a serial position curve is thought to be caused by the encoding of those short items into long-term memory.What type of effect would be generated by a large dip in performance for items in the middle of a list?

A)serial
B)primacy
C)rehearsal
D)interference

Question 31

A concurrent task is:

A)a task that occupies only the central executive.
B)a task that is done prior to the main probe task.
C)a task that is done simultaneously with another task.
D)a task that is done subsequent to the main probe task.

Question 32

The standard explanation of why recency effects occur is:

A)we recall the items using sensory memory.
B)we recall the items because they were stored in long-term memory.
C)we recall the items because we know their source.
D)we recall the items because they are still accessible in working memory.

Question 33

The standard explanation of why primacy effects occur is that:

A)we recall the items using sensory memory.
B)we recall the items because they were stored in long-term memory.
C)we recall the items because the experimenter always makes the first items the easiest.
D)we recall the items because the primacy words are no longer be encoded elaboratively.

Question 34

In working memory, the sub-system responsible for attention and control is known as the:

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

Question 35

In a classic experiment by Crowder and Roediger (1976), people were asked to retrieve as many U.S.presidents as they could think of.They found that:

A)people's memory of U.S.presidents was consistent with their political leanings.
B)most people could not name any presidents, suggesting that Americans need to spend more time learning history.
C)participants showed both a primacy effect and a recency effect.
D)many participants erroneously reported both Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill as U.S.presidents.

Question 36

In the Brown-Peterson task,

A)maintenance rehearsal is reversed.
B)the secondary task creates interference, making the to-be-remembered items less likely to be in working memory.
C)the secondary task creates a word-length effect, which causes massive forgetting.
D)the primacy effect is negated.

Question 37

If maintenance rehearsal repeats information over and over and elaborative rehearsal processes the meaning of information, what type of operation is this called?

A)interference
B)task memory
C)rehearsal
D)duration memory

Question 38

In working memory, the sub-system responsible for working memory for visual images is the:

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

Question 39

Baddeley's model of working memory states that:

A)working memory is not necessary for a working cognition system.
B)working memory is composed of separable sub-systems.
C)working memory is equivalent to the phonological loop.
D)previous models of working memory had no validity.

Question 40

Peterson and Johnson (1971) also did a digit span task with a simultaneously performed concurrent task.Peterson and Johnson asked participants to repeat simple words over and over (e.g., "the," "the," "the," "the," etc.) while they were also supposed to be rehearsing the digits for the digit span task.They found that:

A)participants recalled more digits because the concurrent task stimulated the use of the phonological loop.
B)participants could not simultaneously repeat the word and suppress the digits.
C)participants recalled fewer digits because both tasks occupied the phonological loop.
D)the articulatory suppression prevented the use of the episodic buffer in this task.

Question 41

Brooks (1968) asked participants to make judgments about letters when they were only imagining the letter.He showed that:

A)visual tasks can interfere with auditory imagery.
B)the phonological loop is a static entity.
C)using a visual mode of responding interfered with performance on a visual imagery task.
D)visual imagery can be influenced by semantic factors, such as the shape and size of the letters.

Question 42

In the Brown-Peterson task, rehearsal prevention means that:

A)a secondary task is given which prevents maintenance rehearsal of the to-be-remembered items.
B)participants are instructed not to use maintenance rehearsal.
C)maintenance rehearsal is prevented by presenting the words in a language not spoken by the participant.
D)participants use non-verbal coding of verbal materials.

Question 43

Warrington and Shallice (1969) studied a young brain-damaged man identified in their paper by the initial KF.They found that KF:

A)had a deficit in working memory, particularly with respect to the central executive.
B)had a deficit in working memory, particularly with respect to the phonological loop.
C)had impaired long-term memory but no deficit in working memory.
D)recovered much lost function in working memory after therapy with Warrington and Shallice.

Question 44

Navah-Benjamin and Ayres (1986) found that:

A)digit spans could not be measured unless novel words were used.
B)digit spans were related to pronunciation times of those digits in each the language tested.
C)digit spans are better in Semitic languages than Indo-European languages.
D)digits spans also show primacy effects.

Question 45

If items in working memory are remembered due to maintenance of those items, the observation that memory is usually superior for items at the end of a serial position curve is known as the:

A)primacy effect.
B)recency effect.
C)serial effect.
D)curve effect.

Question 46

What concept refers to a very brief memory system that holds literal information for a fraction of a second to allow cognitive processing?

A)sensory memory
B)erstwhile memory
C)autobiographical memory
D)Von Restorff memory

Question 47

Salame and Baddeley (1989) asked participants to maintain information in working memory while listening to either singing, music without singing, or no sounds at all.They found that:

A)music helps young adults to study, but hurts the ability of older adults to learn.
B)singing most interfered with maintaining information in the phonological loop.
C)all three conditions led to relatively good performance.
D)the condition without any sound was the most challenging.

Question 48

PET and fMRI data show that working memory functions are housed in the:

A)amygdale.
B)occipital lobe.
C)angular gyrus.
D)pre-frontal lobe.

Question 49

Daneman and Carpenter have shown that good working memory:

A)is correlated with performance on reading fluency tests.
B)is correlated with performance of athletic fitness.
C)has no correlations with individual differences in cognitive performance.
D)is better in those whose first language is a Celtic language.

Question 50

According to George Miller, the capacity of working memory is estimated to be:

A)7 plus or minus 2.
B)8 plus or minus 1.
C)exactly 4.
D)there is no limit to its capacity.

Question 51

The visuospatial sketchpad can be defined as:

A)a limited capacity working memory system that stores auditory information for a short period of time.
B)an attentional resource for visual information.
C)a limited capacity long-term memory system for representing visual images.
D)a limited-capacity working memory system that stores visual and spatial information for a short period of time.

Question 52

Strayer and his colleagues have found:

A)that cell-phone use during driving always causes accidents.
B)that cell-phone use during driving causes more accidents relative to non-cell phone use when hazards are present that people react more slowly to.
C)that cell-phone use during driving cause more accidents relative to non-cell use when the driver is otherwise distracted by other stimuli.
D)that cell-phone use during driving is only detrimental in older drivers.

Question 53

If you have not rehearsed a bit of knowledge and you remember it more than two minutes after learning it, you are retrieving from:

A)the phonological loop.
B)the episodic buffer.
C)long-term memory.
D)short-term memory.

Question 54

Strayer and his colleagues link the decrement in driving performance with cell-phone use to:

A)problems in semantic memory.
B)cell-phone use exaggerates the recency effect.
C)cell-phone use taxes the central executive (attentional control).
D)cell-phone use requires the phonological loop to be suppressed.

Question 55

Wei-lin likes to listen to her favorite singer on her iPod while she studies.Research on the irrelevant speech effect suggests that:

A)listening to singing will reduce the capacity of her visuospatial sketchpad.
B)listening to singing will allow her to perform source-monitoring tasks with greater accuracy.
C)listening to singing will mean she can store fewer items in her phonological loop.
D)listening to singing will interfere with her appreciation of the musical chords.

Question 56

Which is the current term used to refer to systems of memory holding information up to 30 seconds?

A)working memory
B)primary memory
C)unemployed memory
D)short-term memory

Question 57

Peterson & Peterson estimated that within how many seconds all information in working memory is lost?

A)10
B)40
C)12
D)18

Question 58

The pronunciation time effect demonstrates that:

A)the capacity of working memory is determined only by the difficulty of pronouncing the words.
B)words that that are harder to pronounce are less likely to be free recall from long-term memory.
C)the word length effect only works in long-term memory.
D)the magic number 7 plus or minus two does not completely explain working memory in the digit-span task.

Question 59

Anders Ericsson and his colleagues trained a normal college student to:

A)never forget autobiographical information.
B)to obtain an 80-number digit span.
C)remember every item in a series of serial position curve.
D)overcome the word length effect.

Question 60

Teasdale (1995) asked participants to generate random numbers.The participants most deviated from the instructions when:

A)the phonological loop was occupied with irrelevant speech.
B)the visuospatial sketchpad was being used for imagery.
C)during the primacy part of a serial position curve.
D)when the central executive was not providing focus on the task.

Question 61

The working memory model proposed by Baddeley states that working memory is actually composed of a number of systems bound together by an:

A)associative bond.
B)n-backed test.
C)executive centrals.
D)attentional mechanism.

Question 62

This is the workings of our auditory working memory system.

A)Phonological Loop
B)Visuospatial Sketchpad
C)Sounding instrument
D)Episodic Buffer

Question 63

Rudolf is given a list of seven reindeer games to remember.Rudolf rehearses the names of the games in working memory.According to the capacity theory of working memory, Rudolf:

A)will be unable to remember all the games because the number exceeds the capacity of working memory.
B)with rehearsal, should be able to keep the items in working memory as he has not exceeded the capacity of working memory
C)rehearsal only applies to digits, not names.
D)will have to chunk all of the items in order to recall them.

Question 64

Articulatory suppression requires the use of the:

A)coconcurrent task loop.
B)phonological loop.
C)phonological task.
D)phonological encoding.

Question 65

George Sperling (1960) demonstrated the hypothetical existence of iconic memory or visual sensory memory.Regarding this experiment, which of the following statements is true?

A)Participants in the partial-report condition could remember 3 from that line, suggesting that 9 letters were accessible visually at the time of recall.
B)The whole-report technique led to a greater estimate of letters that were visually accessible.
C)More information was accessible when echoic memory was used than when iconic memory was used.
D)No information was accessible when echoic memory was used.

Question 66

The phonological loop is mildly impaired in the presence of background speech.This is known as what type of speech?

A)loud
B)buffered
C)slurred
D)irrelevant

Question 67

The Central Executive coordinates the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop to control:

A)focus of attention.
B)episodic memory.
C)sensory memory.
D)metacognition.

Question 68

The n-back task is the reporting of a digit that occurred n-digits that occur somewhere in a line of digits.

A)before
B)after
C)in place
D)summarizing

Question 69

To obtain positive effects of learning can be processed in the phonological loop through:

A)memory rehearsal.
B)recall rehearsal.
C)quiet study.
D)music.

Question 70

Research on training working memory shows that:

A)training working memory immediately generalizes to long-term memory tasks.
B)by training our working memory, we can boost our ability to learn and remember facts and vocabulary words.
C)With practice, we can improve our ability to remember digit spans and other measures of working memory, but improving on these tasks does not automatically translate to better reading comprehension.
D)memory is really not retrainable.

Question 71

The serial position curve measures:

A)the number of digits recalled in a digit-span task.
B)the order of input of the phonological loop.
C)the ability to order a serial list.
D)the likelihood of correct free recall of items as a function of the input order at presentation.

Question 72

An episodic buffer links two systems together and is activated when meaning needs to be extracted from the:

A)episodic memory.
B)n-back task.
C)phonological loop.
D)visuospatial sketchpad.

Question 73

Irrelevant speech has direct implications on this kind of improvement.

A)sensory
B)rehearsal
C)mnemonic
D)neuron

Question 74

In a task, participants are asked to hold a visual image of what their best friends look like.While holding that image, they are asked to perform a digit span task.You would expect:

A)the participants holding the visual image would perform just as well as a control group not holding a visual image because the two tasks use different working memory sub-systems.
B)the participants holding the visual image would perform better than the control group not holding a visual image because the two tasks use different working memory sub-systems.
C)the participants holding the visual image would perform worse than control group not holding a visual image because the two tasks use different working memory sub-systems.
D)the participants holding the visual image soon lost interest.

Question 75

This is a widespread myth of learning that was to improve learning.

A)Hamlet
B)Mozart
C)Vallar
D)Baddeley

Question 76

The episodic buffer holds episodic memories for a brief time to allow them to transfer between the work and what type of memory?

A)long-term
B)short-term
C)preterm
D)postterm

Question 77

Integrated information in a short-term memory system requires an:

A)executive central.
B)integrated code.
C)arithmetic code.
D)episodic buffer.

Question 78

Which type of tasks interfere less with the visuospatial sketchpad?

A)auditory
B)visual
C)sensory
D)both visual and auditory

Question 79

Short-term memory for a short period of time is for what kind of introspection?

A)unconscious
B)subliminal
C)conscious
D)spiritual

Question 80

The current contents of working memory are thought to be equilevant to conscious awareness.