Central Executive

Question 1

What is the central executive?

Answer 1

Processes that organise and coordinate the cognitive system to fulfil current goals

Question 2

When is the central executive used?

Answer 2

• when reading
• problem solving
• multi-tasking

Question 3

Where is the central executive located?

Answer 3

In the prefrontal cortex

disruption to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resulted in impaired performance in complex cognitive tasks

Question 4

Miyake et al 2000 argues there are three processes of the central executive …

Answer 4

• Inhibition
• Shifting
• Updating

Question 5

What is the inhibition process?

Answer 5

The ability to deliberately halt or stop automatic, dominant or prepotent responses

(stroop effect)

Question 6

What is the shifting function?

Answer 6

The ability to move flexibly between multiple tasks or operations

Question 7

What is the updating process of the central executive?

Answer 7

The ability to keep track of working memory operations

Question 8

What evidence is there fo Miyake’s central executive framework?

Answer 8

each executive process (inhibition, shifting, updating) was found to activate different regions of the prefrontal cortex

Question 9

Which area of the brain is associated with the inhibition process of the central executive?

Answer 9

The right intraparietal sulcus

this area is activated when there is a selective attention and a suppression of irrelevant information

Question 10

what area of the brain is associated with the shifting function of the central executive?

Answer 10

The left superior parietal sulcus

Question 11

What area of the brain is associated with the updating function of the central executive?

Answer 11

The lateral prefrontal cortex

Question 12

What unifies the 3 function of the central executive?

Answer 12

there all have the ability to maintain task goals and goal-related information

Question 13

What is the evidence for unity amongst the 3 functions of the central executive?

Answer 13

fMRI evidence showed that tasks assessing each of the functions produced activation in other areas such as the left lateral prefrontal cortex

Question 14

Where is the episodic buffer

Answer 14

A temporary store that exists to integrate information from the phonological loop, the visa-spatial sketchpad and long-term memory

Question 15

Why is the episodic buffer part of the working memory model?

Answer 15

because the episodic buffer explains how information from the LTM can be combined with information held in the phonological loop and sketchpad

Question 16

Baddeley and Wilsons evidence for the episodic buffer …

Answer 16

They used a prose recall study with amnesic patients

amnesiac patients with poor long term memory found it difficult to recall prose, those who had poor central executive functioning had poor immediate prose recall

Those with good central executive functioning displayed better immediate prose recall

Question 17

What brain areas are involved in the episodic buffer

Answer 17

Hippocampus

(Rudner et al required participants to construct representations based on both sign language and speech, episodic buffer task has involved combining different kinds of information - imaging results showed that activation was found in the left hippocampus and not the prefrontal cortex)

Question 18

What does the episodic buffer do?

Answer 18

provides the glue for integrating different types of information in the working memory