Chapter 4 (99-123) Memory

4-15. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 103-104 Difficulty: Moderate a. The final words in a list are recalled accurately because they are still in short-term memory.

4-18. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 104 Difficulty: Moderate a. the primacy effect.

4-22. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 105 Difficulty: Moderate a. proactive interference.

4-28. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 107 Difficulty: Moderate a. short-term memory and long-term memory are distinctly different processes.

4-33. According to Alan 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 108-109 Difficulty: Moderate c. the purpose of working memory is to hold information briefly, and then process and use this information.

4-39. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 110 Difficulty: Easy c. an acoustic confusion.

4-52. 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

Ans: c Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Easy c. creating a mental image of a dog that you actually see every day

4-32. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 108 Difficulty: Moderate a. he emphasized that working memory is useful in holding related items in our memory simultaneously.

4-20. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 105 Difficulty: Easy a. proactive interference.

4-12. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 102 Difficulty: Easy a. rehearsal.

4-42. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 110-111 Difficulty: Moderate a. When material is processed in the phonological loop, similar-sounding items can be confused with one another.

4-14. 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 a a. serial position curve. b. free recall curve. c. memory span curve. d. Brown/Peterson & Peterson curve.

Ans: a Page(s): 103-104 Difficulty: Moderate a. serial position curve.

4-2. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 99 Difficulty: Moderate d. it keeps some items active, so that we can use these items when we are working on a relevant task.

4-35. Which of the following students' statements best characterizes Alan 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."

Ans: a Page(s): 108-109 Difficulty: Moderate a. Sam: "Working memory has four separate components, each with its own specialized kind of cognitive activity."

4-44. You will have difficulty reading your textbook if you are simultaneously singing the words to your favorite song. How would Alan 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 111 Difficulty: Difficult a. The words from the textbook and the words from the song will interfere with each other in the phonological loop.

4-46. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 111-112 Difficulty: Easy a. is useful when you learn a foreign language.

4-49. 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 sketch pad. b. episodic buffer c. phonological loop. d. central executive.

Ans: a Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Easy a. visuospatial sketch pad.

4-51. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Moderate a. is similar to the phonological loop because each has a limited capacity.

4-53. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Moderate a. the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad is limited.

4-68. 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

Ans: a Page(s): 119 Difficulty: Difficult a. people with depression performed significantly worse than people without depression.

4-1. 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 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 99 Difficulty: Moderate a. the difficulty of keeping all this material in your working memory.

4-5. 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.

Ans: a Page(s): 99-100 Difficulty: Easy a. it is flexible, so that you can work on a variety of tasks within a short time period.

4-7. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 101 Difficulty: Easy b. is the basic unit in short-term memory.

4-17. 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 two weeks. This phenomenon is called a. chunking. b. the recency effect. c. the primacy effect. d. proactive interference.

Ans: b Page(s): 103-104 Difficulty: Moderate. b. the recency effect.

4-36. Alan 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 108-109 Difficulty: Easy b. it emphasizes that working memory is an essential component for numerous cognitive tasks.

4-43. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 110 Difficulty: Moderate b. you'll probably have a difficult time on these tasks, because both tasks involve the phonological loop.

4-40. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 110-111 Difficulty: Easy b. store the sound of someone's name.

4-47. 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 hemisphere and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks. c. the right hemisphere and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks. d. no systematic activation patterns have yet been discovered.

Ans: b Page(s): 111-112 Difficulty: Difficult b. the left hemisphere and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks.

4-48. In Chapter 4, the In-Depth Section described research by Leonor Romero 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 to 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 .

Ans: b Page(s): 112 Difficulty: Difficult b. the left parietal lobe and the left frontal lobe are both relevant when you are reading long sentences with complex grammar.

4-54. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Difficult b. when acoustic coding was blocked, people often used visual coding.

4-50. 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

Ans: b Page(s): 113 Difficulty: Easy b. the visuospatial sketchpad.

4-56. 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. Ans: b Page(s): 114 Difficulty: Difficult

Ans: b Page(s): 114 Difficulty: Difficult b. people have trouble on a task that employs the visuospatial sketchpad, if they are simultaneously performing another visual task.

4-57. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 114-115 Difficulty: Moderate b. visual and spatial tasks typically activate the right hemisphere of the brain.

4-59. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 115 Difficulty: b. deciding which items on a list should be remembered and which should be forgotten.

4-65. 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."

Ans: b Page(s): 118-119 Difficulty: Moderate b. Aroona: "People who are especially skilled on a task that uses the central executive are likely to score high in reading comprehension."

4-66. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 119 Difficulty: Moderate b. the central executive.

4-3. 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.

Ans: b Page(s): 99 Difficulty: Moderate b. working memory allows you to keep information accessible so that you can use it on a variety of current tasks.

4-9. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 101 Difficulty: Difficult c. it focused on a cognitive process—mentally converting the stimulus—at a time when most

4-8. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 101 Difficulty: Moderate c. has created chunks out of the zip code.

4-11. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 102-103 Difficulty: Easy c. short-term memory.

4-24. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 105 Difficulty: Moderate c. release from proactive interference.

4-27. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 105-106 Difficulty: Difficult c. material in working memory can be stored in terms of meaning.

4-26. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 105-106 Difficulty: Difficult c. the studies on release from proactive interference demonstrate that semantic factors can influence working memory.

4-30. 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."

Ans: c Page(s): 107 Difficulty: Moderate c. Bruce: "The research has not clearly demonstrated that short-term memory is different from long-term memory."

4-29. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 107 Difficulty: Moderate c. is a strategy that helps you remember items more accurately.

4-31. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 108-109 Difficulty: Easy c. It is a highly active area in which information is being manipulated and changed.

4-34. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 108-109 Difficulty: Moderate c. states that information is continuously being manipulated and changed.

4-4. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 99 Difficulty: Easy d. to coordinate your current mental activities.

4-55. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 114 Difficulty: Moderate c. participants may spontaneously provide a verbal label for a shape, so the task may actually use the phonological loop.

4-60. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 116-117 Difficulty: Difficult c. People could generate a sequence of random numbers more successfully if they were not daydreaming.

4-63. 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. Ans: c Page(s): 117 Difficulty: Moderate

Ans: c Page(s): 117 Difficulty: Moderate c. briefly holds material from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.

4-61. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 117 Difficulty: Moderate c. is primarily controlled by portions of the frontal lobe.

4-64. 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.

Ans: c Page(s): 117-118 Difficulty: Moderate c. allows you to make connections among the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and information from long-term memory.

4-6. Which of the following students provides the best statement about the difference between people's performance in laboratory research and their performance in everyday life, with respect to working memory? a. Phineas: "The tasks are much more difficult in the laboratory than they are in everyday life." b. Lizzy: "People try harder to perform well in the laboratory, compared to everyday life." c. Robert: "People are much more emotional in everyday life than in the laboratory." d. Glencora: "People work on a greater variety of tasks in everyday life, compared to the laboratory."

Ans: d Page(s): 100 Difficulty: Moderate d. Glencora: "People work on a greater variety of tasks in everyday life, compared to the laboratory."

4-10. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 101 Difficulty: Difficult d. Miller's article emphasized active mental processes, rather than simply focusing on the stimulus and the response.

4-13. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 102-103 Difficulty: Moderate d. after many previous trials, people had difficulty recalling the stimuli, even with only a short delay.

4-16. 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: a. the primacy effect. b. proactive interference. c. chunking. d. the recency effect.

Ans: d Page(s): 103-104 Difficulty: Moderate d. the recency effect.

4-19. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 103-104 Difficulty: Moderate d. will be a U-shaped line, with the greatest accuracy on the first and last items.

4-23. 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."

Ans: d Page(s): 105 Difficulty: Difficult 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."

4-21. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 105 Difficulty: Moderate d. proactive interference.

4-25. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 105-106 Difficulty: Difficult d. Recall on the final set of words was most accurate when the previous items had belonged to a different semantic category.

4-37. Alan 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 109 Difficulty: moderate d. working memory focuses on a wide variety of projects, and a workbench can also handle a wide variety of projects.

4-38. What evidence suggested to Alan 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

Ans: d Page(s): 109-110 Difficulty: Moderate d. research showing that people can rehearse words and make spatial judgments at the same time

4-41. 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 Alan Baddeley's model, you are most likely to use your a. visuospatial sketchpad. b. long-term memory. c. central executive. d. phonological loop.

Ans: d Page(s): 110-111 Difficulty: Easy d. phonological loop.

4-45. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 111 Difficulty: Moderate d. the phonological loop plays a role in reading, as well as in memory.

4-58. You have set aside two 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 Alan Baddeley's theory handles this planning activity? a. the phonological loop b. the visuospatial sketchpad c. the episodic buffer d. the central executive

Ans: d Page(s): 115 Difficulty: Moderate d. the central executive

4-62. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 117 Difficulty: Moderate d. provide temporary storage for information from long-term memory, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad.

4-67. 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

Ans: d Page(s): 119 Difficulty: Difficult d. the central executive

4-69. 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.

Ans: d Page(s): 119-120 Difficulty: Difficult d. have trouble when the phonological loop is involved in two simultaneous tasks.