Working memory: a primer

• A. Permanently storing long-term autobiographical memories
• B. Temporarily holding and manipulating information needed for ongoing tasks ✓
• C. Controlling involuntary muscle movements
• D. Regulating the sleep-wake cycle

Why: Working memory is a limited-capacity system that holds and manipulates information over short periods so it can be used for current tasks such as reasoning, comprehension, and problem solving.

• A. The multi-store model
• B. The levels-of-processing model
• C. The multicomponent model ✓
• D. The connectionist model

Why: Baddeley and Hitch's multicomponent model describes working memory as having a central executive that coordinates subsystems such as the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad.

• A. 1 item
• B. 3 to 5 items ✓
• C. 20 to 30 items
• D. 100 items

Why: Estimates such as Cowan's 4-chunk limit and Miller's 'magical number seven' (plus or minus two) suggest that working memory capacity is small, typically around three to five meaningful items.

• A. Remembering your childhood home's address from decades ago
• B. Keeping a phone number in mind while you dial it ✓
• C. Recognizing a familiar face
• D. Knowing that Paris is the capital of France

Why: Holding a phone number briefly while dialing it is a classic working memory task. Long-term recollections, recognition, and general knowledge rely on long-term memory rather than the temporary workspace of working memory.

• A. Working memory has no capacity limit, while short-term memory does
• B. Working memory involves both storing and actively manipulating information, while short-term memory mainly refers to passive storage ✓
• C. Short-term memory lasts for years, while working memory lasts for seconds
• D. There is no difference; the terms are identical

Why: Short-term memory typically describes the passive holding of information over a brief period, whereas working memory emphasizes the active processing and manipulation of that information, such as mentally reordering a list of numbers.

• A. Phonological loop
• B. Visuospatial sketchpad
• C. Central executive ✓
• D. Episodic buffer

Why: The central executive is an attentional control system that coordinates the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and (in later revisions) the episodic buffer. It does not itself store information.

• A. Visuospatial sketchpad
• B. Episodic buffer
• C. Central executive
• D. Phonological loop ✓

Why: The phonological loop stores speech-based and acoustic information and maintains it through subvocal rehearsal. Evidence for it includes the word length effect and the irrelevant speech effect.

• A. Visual and spatial information ✓
• B. Spoken language
• C. Long-term memory retrieval
• D. Decision-making strategies

Why: The visuospatial sketchpad temporarily holds and manipulates visual images and spatial layouts. Tasks such as mentally rotating a shape or remembering the location of objects on a grid rely on it.

• A. It could not explain how working memory integrates information from different sources into a unified representation. ✓
• B. It could not account for memory loss in old age.
• C. It failed to describe how information is stored permanently.
• D. It ignored the role of sensory input from the eyes and ears.

Why: Baddeley (2000) proposed the episodic buffer as a limited-capacity store that binds information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory into coherent multimodal episodes.

• A. The slave systems control the central executive.
• B. The central executive stores most of the information in working memory.
• C. The central executive has no role when the slave systems are active.
• D. The central executive directs attention and allocates resources to the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. ✓

Why: The slave systems are subordinate storage components, while the central executive controls attention and resource allocation between them. The term 'slave systems' reflects this subordinate role.

• A. 1 to 2 items
• B. 7 plus or minus 2 items ✓
• C. 15 to 20 items
• D. 50 items

Why: George Miller's 1956 paper 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two' proposed that working memory capacity is about 7 plus or minus 2 items, a figure later revised downward by researchers such as Cowan to about 4 chunks.

• A. Storing information permanently in long-term memory
• B. Grouping individual pieces of information into larger meaningful units ✓
• C. Repeating information aloud to prevent forgetting
• D. Dividing a task into unrelated sub-tasks

Why: Chunking combines separate items into larger, meaningful units so that more information fits within the limited capacity of working memory. For example, the letter string FBICIANASA is hard to hold, but grouped as FBI-CIA-NASA it becomes three chunks.

• A. 8 3 1 9 5 2 7 4 6
• B. 1 9 8 4 1 9 7 6 2 0 0 1 ✓
• C. Q X B R M T Z K L P W
• D. 3 7 2 1 9 0 5 8 4 6 1 3

Why: The sequence 1 9 8 4 1 9 7 6 2 0 0 1 contains recognizable meaningful groupings (1984, 1976, 2001), which allow chunking into fewer units. The other sequences are random and offer no meaningful grouping.

• A. Experts have a larger physical brain capacity
• B. Experts have stored many patterns as chunks in long-term memory, so each working memory slot holds more information ✓
• C. Experts rely less on working memory overall
• D. Experts can ignore working memory limits entirely

Why: Expertise builds large libraries of chunks in long-term memory. When a chess master sees a familiar board pattern, it occupies one working memory slot rather than many individual pieces, so more meaningful information fits within the same limit.

• A. Capacity is measured by the total number of seconds information can be held
• B. Capacity is limited by the number of meaningful units, not the raw amount of individual characters or digits ✓
• C. Capacity is unlimited as long as information is repeated
• D. Capacity depends only on the sensory modality used to receive information

Why: Working memory limits are generally described in terms of chunks or items rather than raw bits or characters. This is why grouping information into meaningful units can dramatically increase how much can be retained, even though the number of slots stays roughly the same.

• A. The phonological loop
• B. The visuospatial sketchpad
• C. The central executive ✓
• D. The episodic buffer

Why: The central executive is an attentional control system that allocates resources, switches between tasks, and coordinates the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. It does not store information itself; its role is supervisory.

• A. Storing verbal information for brief periods through subvocal rehearsal
• B. Maintaining visual images of spatial layouts
• C. Switching attention between competing tasks ✓
• D. Holding long-term memories for later retrieval

Why: Task switching is a central executive function. Subvocal rehearsal belongs to the phonological loop, visual image maintenance belongs to the visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory storage lies outside working memory.

• A. The word length effect
• B. Dual-task interference, where performing two demanding tasks at once degrades performance on both ✓
• C. The serial position effect in free recall
• D. Semantic priming in lexical decision

Why: When two concurrent tasks both demand central executive resources, performance on each typically drops. This interference is evidence for a limited-capacity attentional controller. The word length effect concerns the phonological loop, not central executive limits.

• A. A store for long-term autobiographical memories
• B. A limited-capacity system that integrates information from the other subsystems and long-term memory into unified episodes ✓
• C. A sensory register that holds unprocessed input for under one second
• D. A rehearsal mechanism that refreshes the phonological store

Why: The episodic buffer was introduced to explain how working memory binds information from different sources, including long-term memory, into coherent multimodal representations. It is controlled by the central executive.

• A. Repeating a string of digits aloud
• B. Counting backward by sevens while simultaneously recalling a list of words ✓
• C. Remembering a spoken phone number by rehearsing it silently
• D. Recalling the color of a briefly presented shape

Why: Counting backward by sevens requires manipulating and updating information, which is a central executive demand. Simple rehearsal of digits or a phone number mainly taxes the phonological loop, and color recall mainly taxes the visuospatial sketchpad.

• A. The central executive
• B. The phonological loop ✓
• C. The visuospatial sketchpad
• D. The episodic buffer

Why: The phonological loop is the subsystem responsible for holding speech-based and sound-based information. It consists of a phonological store that holds sounds briefly and an articulatory rehearsal process that keeps them active.

• A. People can remember longer words more easily than shorter words
• B. Recall is poorer for words that take longer to pronounce, suggesting capacity is limited by spoken duration ✓
• C. Visual features of words determine how well they are stored
• D. Long-term knowledge of word meaning increases short-term capacity

Why: The word length effect shows that people recall fewer long words (e.g., multisyllabic ones) than short words. This supports the idea that the phonological loop's capacity is constrained by how much can be rehearsed within the roughly two-second decay window of the phonological store.

• A. Remembering a list of spoken digits while repeatedly saying 'the the the' ✓
• B. Mentally rotating a block figure to determine whether two shapes match
• C. Recalling the layout of furniture in your bedroom
• D. Following a route on a map while listening to music

Why: Articulatory suppression, such as repeating an irrelevant word aloud, blocks the subvocal rehearsal process of the phonological loop. It therefore impairs verbal memory tasks like recalling digit lists, but leaves visuospatial tasks largely unaffected.

• A. Storing and manipulating visual and spatial information ✓
• B. Controlling attention and coordinating other subsystems
• C. Integrating information across different modalities into episodic representations
• D. Holding abstract numerical concepts for arithmetic

Why: The visuospatial sketchpad temporarily stores and manipulates visual images and spatial relationships, such as the layout of objects or the orientation of shapes. It is the counterpart to the phonological loop for non-verbal, visual-spatial material.

• A. Remembering a phone number while mentally imagining a map of a city
• B. Remembering a phone number while repeating the phone number silently ✓
• C. Visualizing a rotating cube while tapping a steady rhythm
• D. Remembering a picture of a face while listening to a lecture

Why: Holding a phone number while silently repeating it uses the phonological loop twice over, so the two demands compete for the same verbal system. The other pairings involve primarily visual, spatial, or non-storage demands and would interfere less directly.

• A. Long-term memory
• B. Working memory ✓
• C. Sensory memory
• D. Procedural memory

Why: Working memory is the limited-capacity system that temporarily holds and manipulates information needed for ongoing tasks such as reasoning, comprehension, and problem solving. Long-term memory stores information for extended periods, sensory memory holds raw input very briefly, and procedural memory stores skills.

• A. About 1 to 2 items
• B. About 4 items ✓
• C. About 12 items
• D. About 30 items

Why: Research by Cowan and others suggests working memory capacity is about 4 chunks of information for most adults, though older estimates of 7 plus or minus 2 are still sometimes cited. The key point is that the capacity is strictly limited.

• A. Deleting unnecessary information from memory
• B. Grouping individual pieces of information into larger meaningful units ✓
• C. Repeating information aloud to strengthen it
• D. Storing information in sensory memory

Why: Chunking combines separate elements into a single meaningful unit, such as remembering the letters FBI as one chunk instead of three separate letters. This allows more information to be held within the limited capacity of working memory.

• A. Phonological loop
• B. Visuospatial sketchpad
• C. Episodic buffer
• D. Central executive ✓

Why: The central executive is the attention-controlling system in Baddeley's model. It directs focus, switches between tasks, and coordinates the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer. The other components are storage systems for specific types of information.

• A. Their long-term memory has been erased
• B. Working memory is limited, so the earlier information may be displaced while processing later steps ✓
• C. They have stored the information in procedural memory
• D. Sensory memory decays too slowly to hold the problem

Why: Because working memory has limited capacity and holds information only briefly, intermediate results or earlier steps can be pushed out when the student's attention is consumed by new demands. This is why writing intermediate steps down or breaking problems into parts helps learning.

• A. The multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin
• B. The working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch ✓
• C. The levels-of-processing framework of Craik and Lockhart
• D. The dual-coding theory of Paivio

Why: Baddeley and Hitch's multicomponent model describes a central executive that coordinates subsystems: the phonological loop (verbal/acoustic information), the visuospatial sketchpad (visual and spatial information), and, added later, the episodic buffer that integrates information across domains.

• A. 7 plus or minus 2 items
• B. About 4 chunks ✓
• C. About 20 items
• D. About 1 item at a time

Why: Miller's classic estimate of 7 plus or minus 2 items has been revised downward by Cowan and others, who argue that about 4 chunks is a more accurate estimate of the number of items that can be actively maintained when rehearsal and grouping are controlled.

• A. Reading aloud from textbooks
• B. Adaptive n-back training ✓
• C. Passive exposure to music
• D. Repeated multiple-choice testing

Why: Adaptive n-back and complex span training have been widely studied. Near transfer to similar tasks is often found, but evidence for far transfer to fluid intelligence or academic outcomes is inconsistent, which is why many researchers remain cautious about claims of general improvement.

• A. Long-term memory for autobiographical events
• B. Fluid intelligence and reasoning ✓
• C. Motor coordination speed
• D. Color perception

Why: Working memory capacity correlates substantially with fluid intelligence and complex reasoning. One explanation is that both depend on the ability to maintain relevant information and control attention in the face of distraction.

• A. Rehearsing items silently in a loop
• B. Grouping individual items into larger meaningful units to increase effective capacity ✓
• C. Storing information permanently in long-term memory
• D. Shifting attention between two sensory channels

Why: Chunking combines separate pieces of information into a single meaningful unit, such as grouping letters into a familiar acronym. This allows more total information to be held in working memory because capacity is limited in chunks rather than raw items.