The Control and Manipulation of Information

Question 1

Define executive attention.

Answer 1

The process of strategically directing our attention in response to situational demands.

It can also be called cognitive control.

Question 2

What is inhibition in relation to executive attention?

Answer 2

It is the ability to filter out irrelevant information.

Question 3

What is an Operation Span?

Answer 3

It is a task that can be used to assess one’s ability to control attention.

Question 4

How does the operation span relate tot he cocktail party phenomenon and to the Stroop effect?

Answer 4

People with high-span are better at inhibiting irrelevant information, as indicated by a lowe susceptibility to the cocktail-party phenomenon, and to Stroop interference.

Question 5

True or False? Executive attention is central to immediate memory.

Answer 5

True. Immediate memory is the set of processes that allow for the manipulation of information currently in consciousness.

Question 6

Recency effects are often attributed to ___-term memory. Primacy effects are often attributed to ____-term memory.

Answer 6

Short; Long

Question 7

What are the three major components of Baddeley’s working memory model?

Answer 7

Central Executive
Phonological Loop
Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Question 8

Name one piece of empirical evidence that supports the existence of the phonological loop.

Answer 8

The irrelevant speech effect: the finding that any spoken stimulus can disrupt working memory.

The word length effect: shows that words that are longer are more difficult to hold in working memory.

Question 9

True or false? Articulatory suppression can eliminate the phonological similarity effect.

Answer 9

True. The prevention of subvocal rehearsal means that the words are not processed and thus, the phonological similarity effect is void.

Question 10

Name two of the specific processes thought to involve the central executive.

Answer 10

Reasoning.
Language comprehension.
Response inhibition.
Task switching
Fractionation
Attentional control.

Question 11

Unitary views of working memory:

a. include Baddeley’s view
b. have recently fallen out of favor
c. suggest that there is no real distinction between immediate memory and LTM
d. suggest there is immediate memory STM, but no LTM.

Answer 11

c.

Question 12

Distinguish between proactive and retroactive interference.

Answer 12

Proactive interference: old encoded information preventing new information from being encoded properly.
Retroactive interference: New information prevents old information from being rehearsed or retrieved.

Question 13

What are the components of Working memory?

Answer 13

Central Executive
Phonological Store
Visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer

Question 14

What are the components of the phonological loop?

Answer 14

Phonological store

Subvocal rehearsal mechanism/Articulation controll process

Question 15

True or false? Distributed repetition is more effective than massed repetition.

Answer 15

True.

Question 16

Describe 3 types of encoding tasks that lead to good retention.

Answer 16

Deep processing (involving the analysis of meaning)

Processing in terms of survival value

Processing in relation to one self (Self-reference)

Question 17

Which two types of processing combine to produce optimal memory?

Answer 17

According to material appropriate processing framework, relational processing (organization) and individual-item processing (distinctive encoding) combine to produce optimal memory

Question 18

Which memory principle underlies the testing effect?
Distributed repetition
Transfer-appropriate processing
The enactment effect
Immediate memory

Answer 18

Transfer-appropriate processing: Testing your memory through retrieval will greatly help memory tasks later on!