The Working Memory Model: Central Executive

Question 1

What is the central executive?

Answer 1

An attentional system?

Question 2

What is an attentional system?

Answer 2

A system that filters information to determine what is attended to.

Question 3

How does the central executive process and direct information?

Answer 3

• Processes information in all sensory forms.
• Directs information to the approriate component.

Question 4

What is the capacity of the central executive?

Answer 4

Limited unknown, as it can only effectively cope with one strand of information at a time.

Question 5

How does the central executive divide attention?

Answer 5

• Decides how resources are shared.
• Switches attention between different inputs of information.

Question 6

What happened in Baddeley (1996)?

Answer 6

• Asked participants to generate lists of random numbers whilst simultaneously switching between numbers and letters.
• Participants found this difficult as the two tasks were competing for the same central executive resources.
• Due to its limited capacity, it is difficult to cope with more than one type of information at a time.

Question 7

What happened in D’Esposito et al. (1995)?

Answer 7

• Used fMRI scans.
• Found the pre-frontal cortex is activated when verbal and spatial tasks are performed at the same time.
• Suggests the pre-frontal lobe is involved in the central executive.

Question 8

What are the weaknesses of the central executive?

Answer 8

• Little is known about it and thus there is little clairty about how it works or what it does.
• Perhaps better understood as a component that controls the focus of attention, rather than a memory store.