Read the passage excerpt:
'Working memory, as modeled by Alan Baddeley, is not a unitary passive storage buffer, but a multicomponent active cognitive architecture. It comprises the central executive—an attentional supervisory system—and two slave storage subsystems: the phonological loop (responsible for processing acoustic and verbal information via subvocal rehearsal) and the visuospatial sketchpad (handling visual imagery and spatial coordinate representations). A fourth element, the episodic buffer, binds multimodal information into coherent chronological episodes.'
What role does the 'central executive' play in Baddeley's model of working memory?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Acting as a supervisory attentional system that coordinates slave subsystems
- Step 1: The excerpt identifies the central executive as 'an attentional supervisory system' that coordinates the slave storage subsystems.
- Step 2: It allocates cognitive resources and directs focus.
Answer
Acting as a supervisory attentional system that coordinates slave subsystems.
Why not the others: 'Preserving long-term biographical memories...' is the domain of long-term episodic memory; 'Subvocally repeating acoustic phone numbers...' is the task of the phonological loop; 'Passively retaining high-resolution visual photographs...' describes iconic sensory memory or the visuospatial sketchpad.
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