Step 1: Read the following selection from a college sociology textbook, and then answer the questions.

The Emergence of Working Memory

1     Until the 1970s, psychologists used the term short-term memory to refer to memory that lasts for less than a minute. In the 1970s, researchers Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch began to reconceptualize short-term memory as a more complex type of brief storage they called working memory. Their model contains several substructures that operate simultaneously to maintain information while it is being processed. Earlier psychologists often concentrated on single memory tasks, trying to understand the stages of encoding, storage, and retrieval. But the concept of working memory goes beyond individual stages to describe the active integration of both conscious processes (such as repetition) and unconscious processes. This model of memory emphasizes how human memory meets the demands of real-life activities such as listening to the radio, reading, and mentally calculating the sum of 74 plus 782.

2     Working memory is the storage mechanism that temporarily holds current or recent information for immediate or short-term use. In working memory, information is not simply stored; it is further encoded and then maintained for about 20–30 seconds while active processing takes place. A person may decide that a specific piece of information is important; if it is complicated or lengthy, the person will need to actively rehearse it to keep it in working memory. As we saw earlier, rehearsal is the process of repeatedly verbalizing, thinking about, or otherwise acting on or transforming information in order to keep it in memory.

3     The addition of new information may also interfere with the recall of other information in working memory. Baddeley and Hitch demonstrated the limited capabilities of several components, or subsystems, of working memory by having participants recall digits while doing some other type of reasoning task. If one subsystem is given a demanding task, the performance of the others will suffer. One subsystem in working memory encodes, rehearses, and holds auditory information such as a person's name or phone number. Another subsystem is a visual-spatial scratch pad or blackboard, which stores visual and spatial information, such as the appearance and location of objects, for a brief time and then is erased to allow new information to be stored. A third subsystem is a central processing mechanism, something like an executive who balances the information flow and allows people to solve problems and make decisions. This executive controls the processing flow and adjusts it when necessary. Research shows that the type of information being processed by working memory affects the accuracy of the processing. For example, reading a passage consisting entirely of words presents different requirements from reading a passage with both words and pictures, and the central processing mechanism must make adjustments for the different types of information being processed.

Long-Term Memory

4     Information about names, faces, dates, places, smells, and events is stored in relatively permanent form in long-term memory. In contrast to the limitations of sensory and short-term storage, long-term memory is indefinite; much of it lasts a lifetime. The capacity of long-term memory also seems unlimited; the more information a person acquires, the easier it is to acquire more information. Using our filing cabinet analogy, we can say that long-term memory includes all the folders in the cabinet. And as in a filing cabinet, information can be lost ("misfiled") or unavailable for some other reason (the drawers can get stuck). In contrast to a filing cabinet, the information in human memory is active rather than passive in storage and subject to distortion—as if the memos in the folder had morphed into photographs of the office staff while in the cabinet.

5     A wide variety of information is stored in long-term memory—for example, the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the meaning of the word sanguine, how to operate a CD player, the place where your psychology class meets, and what you did to celebrate your high school graduation. Different types of information seem to be stored and called on in different ways.

		1. The topic of the entire passage is     a. memory   b. short-term memory   c. working memory   d. rehearsal
		2. The topic sentence of paragraph 2 is     a. "Working memory is the storage mechanism that temporarily holds current or recent information for immediate or short-term use."   b. "In working memory, information is not simply stored; it is further encoded and then maintained for about 20–30 seconds while active processing takes place."   c. "A person may decide that a specific piece of information is important; if it is complicated or lengthy, the person will need to actively rehearse it to keep it in working memory."   d. "As we saw earlier, rehearsal is the process of repeatedly verbalizing, thinking about, or otherwise acting on or transforming information in order to keep it in memory."
		3. Working memory includes all of the following except     a. knowing the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner"   b. listening to the radio   c. reading   d. mentally calculating large sums
		4. Transition words such as until, in the 1970s, earlier, and often that appear in paragraph 1 indicate     a. addition   b. time   c. classification   d. listing
		5. Transition words such as several, one, another, and third that appear in paragraph 3 indicate     a. addition   b. time   c. classification   d. listing
		Map the components of working memory below: 6. First component of working memory (box 6):
		7. Second component of working memory (box 7):
		8. Third component of working memory (box 8):
		9. What kind of transition words are the words and, also, and other as used in paragraph 4?
		10. Based on your reading, what is the best procedure to help you remember information for a test?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.