Worksheets222 stm
Total questions: 97
Worksheet time: 49mins
According to the Modal Model of Memory, what distinguishes the different memory stores?
Emotional salience of information
Duration, capacity, and type of processing
Neural mechanisms used
Level of conscious awareness
The recency effect in the serial position curve is attributed to:
Semantic encoding
Long-term memory rehearsal
Immediate recall from short-term memory
Proactive interference
Which condition would eliminate the recency effect in a serial position task?
Adding a distractor task before recall
Increasing the number of items
Changing the modality of the list
Presenting the list visually instead of aurally
Which of the following best demonstrates the concept of chunking in STM?
Recalling ten unrelated digits
Remembering a visual scene
Recalling “FBI-NFL-MTV” instead of 12 letters
Forgetting similar-sounding words
Cowan’s (2005) estimate of STM capacity, using a running memory task, was:
7±2 items
3.87 items
10±3 digits
5 words
When recalling 3-syllable words versus 1-syllable words, which is more likely?
More 3-syllable words recalled due to semantic content
No difference if recall is immediate
Fewer 3-syllable words recalled due to chunking difficulty
Equal performance due to visual encoding
Which of the following supports the claim that STM predominantly uses acoustic encoding?
Word length effect
Recency effect
Phonological similarity effect
Articulatory suppression
The Brown-Peterson task provides evidence for which concept?
Semantic encoding in STM
Decay theory of forgetting
Episodic memory storage
Reconstructive memory
In the Brown-Peterson task, counting backwards prevents:
Chunking
Visual rehearsal
Rehearsal of the trigram
Encoding into LTM
What is the primary explanation for forgetting in the Waugh & Norman (1965) probe digit task?
Decay from lack of rehearsal
Retroactive inhibition
Interference from similar items
Failure to encode
Which variable had no significant effect on recall in Waugh & Norman’s experiment?
The rate of presentation
Number of intervening items
Position of the probe digit
Modality of the digits
What does “release from proactive interference” suggest about STM forgetting?
Forgetting is caused by time
Chunking enhances recall
Interference is stimulus-specific
STM relies only on acoustic coding
The Sternberg task showed that people typically use what search strategy in STM?
Parallel search
Serial self-terminating
Serial exhaustive
Random access retrieval
Which prediction is not consistent with the serial exhaustive search model?
RT increases with larger memory sets
RT does not vary depending on probe position
RT is slower when probe is absent
All items are scanned even if probe is found early
In Sternberg’s task, why was parallel search ruled out?
Participants took longer to respond with longer memory sets
Error rates were too low
RT increased when the probe was not in the list
Participants used subvocal rehearsal
According to Baddeley (2007), what distinguishes working memory from short-term memory?
Duration of memory trace
Inclusion of rehearsal strategies
Active manipulation of stored information
Encoding modality
Which patient profile supports the distinction between STM and WM?
Cannot recall trigrams after delay
Has intact recognition but poor recall
Can recall full sentences but not individual words
Can retrieve old LTM memories but not recent ones
In Baddeley and Hitch’s dual-task experiment, which condition interfered most with reasoning?
Repeating a 2-digit number
Holding 6 digits in mind
Reading words silently
Answering general knowledge questions
Which of these is not a component of Baddeley’s working memory model?
Episodic buffer
Central executive
Semantic store
Phonological loop
The function of the phonological loop is most closely related to:
Storing autobiographical memories
Rehearsing verbal material
Spatial navigation
Long-term semantic memory
Which experimental effect supports the phonological loop theory?
Word length effect
Recency effect
Serial position curve
Self-reference effect
Why does articulatory suppression impair verbal recall?
It blocks the episodic buffer
It causes semantic confusion
It interferes with subvocal rehearsal
It disrupts visual encoding
Which best describes the phonological similarity effect?
Recall improves for similar-sounding words
Similar sounds cause interference in verbal recall
Semantically related items are confused
Meaningless sounds are ignored
Which of the following best illustrates the role of the visuospatial sketchpad?
Listening to music while reading
Solving a verbal analogy
Mentally rotating a 3D object
Repeating a phone number aloud
What does representational momentum suggest about visuospatial memory?
It has limited capacity
It uses chunking for recall
It predicts future movement
It is unaffected by visual interference
Which of the following tasks would best test the episodic buffer?
Repeating a list of digits
Recalling a sentence after visualizing a scene
Mentally rotating letters
Counting backward by 3s from a number
The episodic buffer is thought to:
Replace the central executive
Interfere with the visuospatial sketchpad
Integrate information from different modalities
Store only long-term memories
A key limitation of Baddeley’s working memory model is:
It includes too many sensory stores
The central executive is not clearly defined
It excludes rehearsal processes
It only explains STM forgetting
Which best characterizes the central executive in the working memory model?
A passive store for visual input
An acoustic processing system
A modality-specific buffer
A domain-general attentional control system
Which scenario best reflects executive control in action?
Memorizing a phone number
Deciding to ignore background noise while studying
Repeating words aloud
Locating your keys visually
Which task would most heavily tax the central executive?
Listening to a podcast
Solving a logic puzzle while rehearsing digits
Reading a paragraph silently
Naming colors aloud
According to Baddeley, verbal rehearsal is:
The only method of WM storage
Passive and automatic
Optional and handled by the articulatory loop
Unrelated to the phonological loop
The word length effect demonstrates that:
Meaningful words are easier to encode
Shorter words are recalled better due to faster rehearsal
Syllable count doesn’t affect STM
Semantic memory disrupts phonological memory
Which of the following supports dual coding theory within the WM model?
Remembering a visual image better than a list
Poor recall under articulatory suppression
Improved recall when words are presented with pictures
Phonological similarity reducing accuracy
Why is articulatory suppression effective at reducing STM performance?
It blocks episodic recall
It interferes with the phonological rehearsal loop
It enhances proactive interference
It prevents parallel search strategies
In the mental rotation task, what was the key dependent variable?
Number of shapes recalled
Type of shape selected
Reaction time
Color of objects
The linear increase in RT during mental rotation tasks suggests:
Retrieval involves parallel search
Participants use visual simulation
STM uses semantic codes
Rotation is not mentally taxing
The tendency to misremember the location of a moving object as further along its trajectory is called:
Recency illusion
Temporal displacement
Representational momentum
Movement bias effect
A task requiring you to solve math problems while remembering unrelated words is a:
Serial recall test
Simple span task
Complex span task
Semantic fluency task
Complex span tasks are correlated with:
Sensory memory capacity
Visual imagery skills
Language comprehension and fluid intelligence
Episodic memory recall
In the Reading Span Task, participants:
Read and recall entire sentences
Rehearse digits while solving reasoning tasks
Recall last words of sentences they read
Match words with pictures
What did Daneman & Carpenter (1980) find about reading span?
It did not correlate with comprehension
It predicted sentence recognition but not word span
It correlated with reading comprehension and SAT scores
It decreased with increasing word familiarity
Which task provides the strongest predictive value for fluid intelligence?
Free recall task
Sternberg task
N-back task
Serial position task
What is the main cognitive demand in an N-back task?
Rehearsal of information
Retrieval from long-term memory
Updating and comparing working memory contents
Interference inhibition
Which factor is least likely to influence performance on WM tasks?
Semantic knowledge
Divided attention
Task complexity
Central executive efficiency
Which of the following is most accurate about the difference between STM and WM?
STM is always longer-lasting than WM
WM includes manipulation, STM does not
STM relies more on LTM than WM
STM only uses semantic encoding
Which of these is true of people with high working memory capacity?
They are more prone to inattentional blindness
They perform worse under high cognitive load
They are less distracted by their name in unattended channels
They score lower on fluid intelligence tasks
Which example demonstrates proactive interference?
Learning new numbers helps you forget old ones
Old passwords make it hard to learn a new one
A list of colors makes you forget shapes
Recall improves after changing stimulus type
If participants can recall fewer items when more digits appear between a probe and its target, this supports:
Decay theory
Long-term memory retrieval
Interference theory
Semantic encoding
What experimental finding led researchers to conclude that STM retrieval is serial and exhaustive?
Recall was faster for probes early in the memory set
RT was equal regardless of probe position
RT increased with memory set size, even when probe was present
RT was faster for familiar letters
Which factor did Keppel & Underwood (1962) manipulate to demonstrate proactive interference?
Speed of presentation
Delay before recall
Number of trials
Type of encoding
Wickens et al. (1963) found performance improved when switching from digits to words. What does this suggest?
STM capacity is limited
Retrieval is parallel
Similarity causes interference
Visual codes dominate recall
What distinguishes serial recall from free recall?
Serial recall allows guessing
Free recall requires strict order
Serial recall demands correct order
Free recall takes longer
Which of the following would cause the most interference in phonological STM?
“red, cat, wall, bowl”
“eat, drink, boat, orange”
“goal, coal, bowl, pole”
“book, phone, pen, table”
The phonological similarity effect reflects interference due to:
Semantic associations
Similar word lengths
Confusion of similar-sounding items
Emotional valence of stimuli
Why does saying “the, the, the...” during a memory task impair recall?
It taxes the episodic buffer
It consumes resources in the phonological loop
It enhances retroactive interference
It disrupts long-term encoding
What would most likely disrupt the visuospatial sketchpad during a rotation task?
Reading aloud
Repeating digits
Watching moving objects
Listening to music
The visuospatial sketchpad simulates which real-world cognitive skill?
Mental arithmetic
Internal monologue
Predicting motion
Categorizing items
A patient can repeat spoken words but cannot imagine objects. What component is impaired?
Phonological buffer
Articulatory loop
Visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
In a dual-task condition, which pairing would be least likely to interfere with each other?
Mental math + digit span
Word recall + word generation
Mental rotation + articulatory suppression
Sentence verification + sentence comprehension
Which of these challenges the assumption that STM is simply a storage buffer?
Serial recall tasks
Patients with poor span but good sentence comprehension
Brown-Peterson task findings
Sternberg’s reaction time data
Which evidence supports the separation of STM and LTM?
Recency effect disappears with delay
Word length effect
Articulatory suppression effect
RT increase in Sternberg task
The modal model suggests that information reaches LTM only if:
It is semantically encoded
It is held in STM for a long time
It is visually processed
It passes through the phonological loop
Which task would best test working memory capacity rather than just STM span?
Repeating 9 digits in order
Matching words with colors
Solving equations while remembering letters
Recognizing words from a list
Why are complex span tasks better indicators of higher cognitive functioning?
They require passive rehearsal
They involve sensory integration
They include processing and storage demands
They emphasize long-term retrieval
A person with high WM capacity is better at which of the following?
Detecting all stimuli regardless of relevance
Multitasking regardless of difficulty
Suppressing distraction during complex reasoning
Memorizing large word lists
What does the reading span task measure?
Memory for factual content
Ability to store and manipulate sentence elements
Recognition of sentence structure
Speed of silent reading
The n-back task measures:
Depth of semantic encoding
Maintenance of rehearsal strategies
Updating and continuous attention to stimuli
Recall of structured lists
Which process would most directly challenge the central executive?
Listening to music
Repeating digits
Shifting attention between two tasks
Naming objects
What makes the episodic buffer unique compared to the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad?
It processes only sensory information
It encodes long-term memories directly
It binds multimodal inputs into coherent chunks
It stores auditory data exclusively
What kind of performance would you expect from someone with a damaged central executive?
Inability to form episodic memories
Poor attention control and task switching
Perfect recall of digits
Preserved spatial memory
Which test shows the strongest link to fluid intelligence?
Serial position recall
Reading span
Free recall task
Simple digit span
Which experimental design best tests the capacity limit of the phonological loop?
Articulatory suppression
Word length manipulation
Serial recall of nonsense words
Repeating single-syllable words aloud
The phonological buffer is considered:
A long-term storage site for language
An active rehearsal mechanism
A passive temporary store for verbal input
A visual representation system
Which aspect of Baddeley’s WM model is still considered a “work in progress”?
Central executive’s role in attention
Articulatory loop mechanics
Episodic buffer’s operation and integration
Phonological similarity effects
Which condition best demonstrates that phonological rehearsal is not always essential for recall?
Articulatory suppression + visual imagery
Serial position task
Free recall of meaningful phrases
Recognition test with words
Which real-world task would draw most heavily on visuospatial sketchpad resources?
Playing a fast-paced video game
Memorizing a list of numbers
Listening to a lecture
Solving a crossword puzzle
The CEO metaphor used to describe the central executive refers to its role in:
Passive storage of instructions
Coordinating and controlling cognitive processes
Managing motor movements
Consolidating memories
Which is not a defining feature of the central executive?
Direct involvement in active rehearsal
Task-switching and updating
Planning and resource allocation
Supervising subsystems
A person failing to ignore irrelevant stimuli during a lecture may have:
An impaired phonological loop
Poor fluid intelligence
Low visuospatial capacity
Reduced central executive function
Which phenomenon contradicts the idea of fixed STM capacity?
Chunking effects
Primacy effect
Recency effect
Retroactive interference
What is the best explanation for why longer words are recalled worse than shorter ones?
They are semantically richer
They are less familiar
They take longer to rehearse, so decay starts
They require episodic encoding
A key finding from the Wickens et al. (1963) study was that:
STM retrieval is parallel
Switching from digits to letters reduces proactive interference
Decay happens faster with semantic stimuli
Retroactive interference dominates recall
Why does changing the type of material reduce proactive interference?
It triggers LTM consolidation
The episodic buffer integrates the change
Different categories reduce confusion and competition
Acoustic encoding becomes dominant
What effect would a concurrent visual tracking task have on a mental rotation exercise?
No effect
Improved recall
Impaired rotation accuracy
Reduced phonological interference
Which of the following best supports the claim that WM is not just STM with a new name?
STM and WM use different encoding systems
WM includes manipulation of information
STM can hold more items under interference
Both can hold around 7±2 chunks
A patient shows poor STM span but normal comprehension of meaningful sentences. This supports the:
Semantic interference hypothesis
Multiple component view of WM
Decay theory
Retroactive inhibition theory
Which of the following distinguishes working memory tests from STM tests?
STM tests use LTM
WM tests include distractors and processing tasks
WM tests measure only span
STM tests require visual encoding
Which kind of test would best differentiate individuals with high vs. low WM capacity?
Serial position test
Brown-Peterson test
Reading span task
Probe digit task
A participant who forgets newer material due to older information is experiencing:
Retroactive interference
Episodic decay
Proactive interference
Temporal displacement
Why does increasing the number of intervening items impair probe digit recall?
Older digits are forgotten first
Proactive interference increases
Items displace one another in STM
Phonological loop is overloaded
The primary difference between decay and interference theories is:
Whether memory failure is due to time vs. competing information
Which encoding modality is used
Whether information reaches LTM
The use of rehearsal strategies
What does the failure of parallel search in Sternberg’s experiment suggest?
STM capacity is less than 3 items
People stop searching after finding a match
Search is done item by item, not all at once
LTM interferes with STM performance
What would most reduce confusion from phonological similarity during recall?
Repeating words in your head
Writing the words down
Using semantically distinct words
Switching to visual encoding
What finding shows central executive limitations during multitasking?
Reaction times increase with word length
Performance drops when two tasks tap the same executive process
Serial recall is improved with practice
Retrieval is slower in interference conditions
What does executive functioning rely on most?
Repetition and rehearsal
Attentional control and planning
Familiarity with material
Emotional salience of content
What can be concluded if a person struggles with N-back tasks but performs well on simple digit span?
They have low long-term memory
They lack phonological processing
Their STM is intact, but WM updating is impaired
They rely too heavily on visuospatial sketchpad
