Chapter 5 - Cognitive Control and Working Memory

Question 1

Cognitive Control

Answer 1

ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals

Question 2

Cognitive Overload

Answer 2

different tasks require a different amount of mental resources

ex: it is easier to sing along to a familiar song than it is to calculate answers to math equations

Question 3

Dual-Task Experiments

Answer 3

assess how well two tasks can be done simultaneously vs one a time

Question 4

Norman and Shallice (1980)

Answer 4

experiment regarding automatic and controlled processes

results: attentional resources are required for tasks that involve planning, decision making, or are not yet automatized and go against habitual responses

requires prefrontal cortex, if damaged, patients have difficulty alternating behaviors and inhibiting responses

Question 5

Inhibition

Answer 5

ability to suppress information, thoughts, or actions that may interfere with ongoing behavior

Question 6

Conflict Monitoring

Answer 6

cognitive control processes detect interference
includes Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

Question 7

Conflict Resolution

Answer 7

cognitive control processes act to reduce interference, inhibition of conflicting information
includes Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)

Question 8

Error Detection

Answer 8

ACC monitors for errors and initiates adjustments by DLPFC when errors are detected to adjust behavior

Question 9

Gohring et. al (2000)

Answer 9

examined Error Related Negativity in subjects who had OCD

subjects pressed red or green buttons with stimuli that were words of different colors that were printed in red or green, compared correct and error trials

results: OCD subjects showed enhanced ERN and were more sensitive to errors

Question 10

Rogers and Monsell (1995)

Answer 10

created task-switching paradigm, task alternates every two trials

results: subjects were better at task switching when they had prep time, but were always slower to switch

Question 11

Working Memory

Answer 11

limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning

Question 12

Baddley’s Working Memory Model

Answer 12

storage: maintain information that is no longer available in perception
manipulate: performs operations on and transforms information

the components of the system are thought to be limited in capacity and relatively independent

Question 13

Central Executive

Answer 13

responsible for cognitive control
selects information for processing and inhibits irrelevant information/actions

Question 14

Brooks (1967)

Answer 14

subjects performed two tasks: visuo-spatial and verbal

visuo-spatial: starting at a dot that is located on a letter, transverse clockwise around letter and indicate whether corner is an outside (yes) or inside (no) corner

verbal: hold a sentence in memory and specify whether each word is a noun or not
noun = “yes” ; non-noun = “no”

results: responses slower when response mode was of the
same type as primary task

Question 15

Phonological Loop

Answer 15

phonological store: holds information temporarily in a phonological code

articulatory control process: “inner voice,” rehearses information to keep it active in phonological store

Question 16

Naveh-Benjamin & Ayers (1986) - Word-Length Effect

Answer 16

compared native speakers of English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic,

measured average pronunciation rate

results: found systematic differences
English was the fastest, Arabic was the slowest

Question 17

Conrad (1964) - Phonological Similarity Effect

Answer 17

information is being held in a phonological rather than a visual code, lists of similar-sounding items are more difficult to keep track of than different-sounding items

subjects recalled lists of letters in orders
results: mistakes were more likely to be phonologically similar than visually similar

Question 18

Articulatory Suppression

Answer 18

engaging in articulation (repeating: la, la, la, . . . or the, the, the, . . .) engages the articulatory control process so that it can’t be used for rehearsal

information quickly lost from phonological loop without rehearsal, and memory span is worse with articulatory suppression

also reduces the word length effect & the phonological similarity effect

Question 19

Irrelevant Speech Effect

Answer 19

hearing irrelevant speech can impair memory performance because it competes with information you are trying to remember

Question 20

Verbal Working Memory

Answer 20

predicts many different language skills (vocab, second language learning, reading comprehension), because it can be measured with reading span tasks where subject reads a list of sentences and remembers the last words

Question 21

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Answer 21

creates a representation of environment as you make eye movements

Question 22

Luck & Vogel (1997) - Visual Short Term Memory

Answer 22

tested subjects by doing visual short term memory tasks with individual features of items

results: VSTM can hold the features of color and orientations of an object and can hold about 4 objects

Question 23

Alavarez and Cavanaugh (2004) - Capacity of Short Term Memory

Answer 23

used colored squares and more complex objects to measure changes in VSTM

results: less capacity for more complex items
suggests limit is in amount of information, not number of items

Question 24

Smith & Jonides (1997) - Visual vs. Spatial Working Memory

Answer 24

measured brain activity during task with PET scan
spatial task (squares)
visual task (triangles)

results: for object task, the did not match the object’s shape from initial array
for location task, the probe did not match the location from initial array

Question 25

Chase & Simon (1973) - “Chunking”

Answer 25

long term memory can increase capacity of working memory through chunking

chess masters have better memory of piece locations than novices, but only for arrangements corresponding to the game

used LTM to “chunk” pieces according to strategies

Question 26

Eysenck et. al (2007) - Cognitive Control/Inhibition and Emotion

Answer 26

inhibition is critical in emotional regulation, need to be able to inhibit maladaptive negative thoughts
difficulty in doing so can result in rumination - dwelling on negative thoughts and interferes with ability to focus on positive problem solving

tested subjects who were highly anxious
results: more difficulty inhibiting neutral stimuli, more flanker interference
suggests general inhibitory deficits

Question 27

Bishop (2009) - fMRI Study

Answer 27

tested subjects who were highly anxious

results: less prefrontal activity on flanker conflict trials
general inhibitory deficit
more likely to be distracted by irrelevant information

Question 28

Yerkes-Dodson Curve

Answer 28

describes how performance suffers as
a result of anxiety, especially for difficult tasks that require a high degree of cognitive control

stress and anxiety take up working memory capacity that should be devoted to problem solving

Question 29

Cognitive Control and Ego Depletion

Answer 29

cognitive control requires mental effort, but can lead to mental fatigue, AKA ego depletion, as a result

Question 30

Mani et. al (2013) - Scarcity Induced Stress and Working Memory

Answer 30

measured different incomes of subjects

primed with “scarcity scenario”: your car is having trouble and requires $_____ to be fixed. you can pay in full, take a loan, or take a chance and forego service right now. how would you go about making this decision?

results: at first, no difference in spatial or control with no scarcity scenario
but, scarcity scenario hurt working memory for low income subjects
poverty may influence decision making
worrying about money consumes working memory capacity

Question 31

Working Memory Capacity

Answer 31

positively correlated to performance on a number of different tasks including:

verbal abilities
reading comprehension
problem solving
IQ scores
ability to ignore distractions

Question 32

Improving Cognitive Control and Working Memory

Answer 32

focus on attentionally demanding tasks

study done by Green & Baverlier (2003) shows that action video games can improve attention abilities

sleep & exercise can also improve cognitive control and working memory

attention restoration theory: being out in nature can restore resources depleted by cognitive fatigue