EXP3604 ch 4
You will have difficulty reading your textbook if you are simultaneously singing the words to your favorite song. How would Baddeley explain this phenomenon?
The words from the textbook and the words from the song will interfere with each other in the phonological loop.
Working memory is useful in our daily lives because
it is flexible, so that you can work on a variety of tasks within a short time period.
According to Chapter 4, working memory is especially important because
it keeps some items active, so that we can use these items when we are working on a relevant task.
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
phonological loop.
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
proactive interference.
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin's classic theory,
short-term memory and long-term memory are distinctly different processes.
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
short-term memory.
Compared to the earlier view of short-term memory, the current view of working memory
states that information is continuously being manipulated and changed.
Baddeley's model of working memory proposes a feature called the "phonological loop." This feature allows you to
store the sound of someone's name.
Baddeley's model of working memory points out that
the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad is limited.
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
the central executive.
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
the difficulty of keeping all this material in your working memory.
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
the phonological loop plays a role in reading, as well as in memory.
According to the research about factors that affect the capacity of working memory,
the studies on release from proactive interference demonstrate that semantic factors can influence working memory.
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
the visuospatial sketchpad.
Neuroscientists who have examined the visuospatial sketchpad have discovered that
visual and spatial tasks typically activate the right hemisphere of the brain.
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
visuospatial sketchpad
You are trying to retain—in your working memory—a mental picture of a stranger's face. According to Baddeley, you are using your
visuospatial sketchpad.
In a study on working memory, one group of participants repeated a sound, thereby blocking acoustic coding for other material. This research showed that
when acoustic coding was blocked, people often used visual coding.
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
will be a U-shaped line, with the greatest accuracy on the first and last items.
According to the discussion at the beginning of the chapter on working memory (Chapter 4),
working memory allows you to keep information accessible so that you can use it on a variety of current tasks.
Baddeley chose the metaphor of a "workbench" to represent his model of working memory because
working memory focuses on a wide variety of projects, and a workbench can also handle a wide variety of projects.
Christopher and MacDonald compared the working memory capacities of people with and without major depression. They found that, in general, depressed people performed
worse on tasks involving either the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, or central executive.
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,
you'll probably have a difficult time on these tasks, because both tasks involve the phonological loop.
Chapter 4 described research by LJRomero Lauro and her colleagues, which used a method called "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation." These authors concluded that
the left parietal lobe and the left frontal lobe are both relevant when you are reading long sentences with complex grammar.
According to the neuroscience research on the phonological loop,
the left temporal lobe and the frontal lobe are activated by auditory tasks.
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?
Recall on the final set of words was most accurate when the previous items had belonged to a different semantic category.
What evidence suggested to Baddeley that working memory has several components?
Research showing that people can rehearse words and make spatial judgments at the same time
Which of the following students' statements best characterizes Baddeley's view of working memory?
Sam: "Working memory has four separate components, each with its own specialized kind of cognitive activity."
What is the current status of the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?
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
Which of the following students has the best understanding of the concept "release from proactive interference"?
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."
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?
The central executive
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?
The central executive
Chapter 4 discussed research on the recency effect. How is this research related to short-term memory?
The final words in a list are recalled accurately because they are still in short-term memory.
The discussion of working memory examines research on "acoustic confusions." How are acoustic confusions relevant to working memory?
When material is processed in the phonological loop, similar-sounding items can be confused with one another.
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
after many previous trials, people had difficulty recalling the stimuli, even with only a short delay.
Baddeley's model of working memory now includes a feature called the "episodic buffer." According to Baddeley, this feature
allows you to make connections among the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and information from long-term memory.
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
an acoustic confusion.
Baddeley's current model of working memory includes a feature called the episodic buffer. According to Baddeley's description, the episodic buffer
briefly holds material from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.
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?
creating a mental image of a dog that you actually see every day
Researchers in neuroscience, over the past two decades, have spent a great deal of time working on the
executive attention network.
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
has created chunks out of the zip code.
Based on Chapter 4's discussion of depression and working memory, a clinical psychologist should know that people with depression
have trouble when the phonological loop is involved in two simultaneous tasks.
Baddeley's model of working memory had a different focus from the earlier approaches to short-term memory because
he emphasized that working memory is useful in holding related items in our memory simultaneously.
In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of short-term memory, the concept called "control processes"
is a strategy that helps you remember items more accurately.
Chapter 4 discusses neuroscience research on the central executive. According to this discussion, the central executive
is primarily controlled by portions of the frontal lobe.
According to Baddeley's approach to working memory, the visuospatial sketchpad
is similar to the phonological loop because each has a limited capacity.
George Miller's (1956) classic article, on the magical number seven, introduced the concept of a chunk. According to Miller's terminology, a chunk
is the basic unit in short-term memory.
According to the discussion of working memory, the phonological loop
is useful when you learn a foreign language.
Baddeley proposed that his approach to working memory differed from earlier approaches because
it emphasizes that working memory is an essential component for numerous cognitive tasks.
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
it focused on a cognitive process—mentally converting the stimulus—at a time when most psychologists focused on people's external behavior.
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
material in working memory can be stored in terms of meaning.
According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model,
memory can be represented as a series of stages in which information is passed between separate storage areas.
One reason that the visuospatial sketchpad is more challenging to study than the phonological loop is that
participants may spontaneously provide a verbal label for a shape, so the task may actually use the phonological loop.
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
people have trouble on a task that employs the visuospatial sketchpad, if they are simultaneously performing another visual task.
Your textbook discusses research about the relationship between depression and performance on tasks involving the phonological loop. This research showed that
people with depression performed significantly worse than people without depression.
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
proactive interference.
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
proactive interference.
According to the Baddeley's revized model of working memory, one major purpose of the episodic buffer is to
provide temporary storage for information from long-term memory, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad.
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
rehearsal.
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
release from proactive interference.
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
right cerebral hemisphere, especially the frontal and parietal lobes.
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
serial position curve.
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
the primacy effect.
According to Baddeley and his colleagues,
the purpose of working memory is to hold information briefly, and then process and use this information.
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
the recency effect.
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
the recency effect.
According to the introduction of Chapter 4, one important function of working memory is
to coordinate your current mental activities.
Which of the following students provides the best information about short-term memory in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?
Albena: "Items in your short-term memory are often lost within 30 seconds."
In the discussion of working memory, why did Teasdale and his colleagues (1995) conclude that daydreaming is processed by the central executive?
People could generate a sequence of random numbers more successfully if they were not daydreaming.
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?
Aroona: "People who are especially skilled on a task that uses the central executive are likely to score high in reading comprehension."
Which of the following students provides the best overview of the current status of the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?
Bruce: "The research has not clearly demonstrated that short-term memory is different from long-term memory."
In the working-memory model, which of the following cognitive activities would the central executive be most likely to perform?
Deciding which items on a list should be remembered and which should be forgotten
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?
Glencora: "People work on a greater variety of tasks in everyday life, compared to the laboratory."
How would you characterize Alan Baddeley's description of working memory?
It is a highly active area in which information is being manipulated and changed.
According to the chapter on working memory, what was nontraditional about George Miller's article on the "magical number seven"?
Miller's article emphasized active mental processes, rather than simply focusing on the stimulus and the response.
