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WME practice questions

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Question 1Auditory Memory

In the WME auditory memory model, information held in the phonological loop is primarily encoded in what form?

  1. Motor sequences
  2. Visuospatial sketches
  3. Semantic propositions
  4. Acoustic or speech-based codes Correct answer.

Explanation

The phonological loop is the speech-based component of working memory, so its contents are stored as acoustic or phonological codes rather than visual or semantic representations. This is why phonologically similar items interfere with one another in immediate recall.

Question 2Auditory Memory

A listener repeats a list of digits immediately after hearing them. Which memory system is being tested most directly?

  1. Semantic memory
  2. Episodic autobiographical memory
  3. Procedural memory
  4. Auditory short-term memory Correct answer.

Explanation

Immediate serial recall of heard digits taxes the temporary storage of acoustic input, which is auditory short-term memory. No long-term meaning or personal context is required to perform the task.

Question 3Auditory Memory

In a free recall task, participants tend to remember the first few items of a list especially well. What is this pattern called?

  1. Primacy effect Correct answer.
  2. Suffix effect
  3. Von Restorff effect
  4. Recency effect

Explanation

The primacy effect is the recall advantage for early list items, usually attributed to those items receiving more rehearsal and entering long-term memory. It contrasts with the recency advantage for the final items.

Question 4Auditory Memory

Which experimental manipulation most reliably reduces the recency effect in free recall of spoken words?

  1. Making the words longer
  2. Increasing the presentation rate
  3. Adding a filled delay before recall Correct answer.
  4. Presenting the words in a different voice

Explanation

The recency advantage depends on the last items still residing in short-term storage, so a filled delay that prevents rehearsal removes them and attenuates recency. The earlier primacy portion, held in long-term memory, is largely unaffected.

Question 5Auditory Memory

A participant hears the sequence 'B, C, D, V, G, T, P' and misremembers it as 'B, C, D, V, G, T, B'. This error best illustrates which phenomenon?

  1. Word length effect
  2. Phonological similarity effect Correct answer.
  3. Articulatory suppression
  4. Irrelevant speech effect

Explanation

The letters B, C, D, V, G, T and P share similar vowel sounds, so their phonological codes are easily confused and one similar item substitutes for another. This confusion among acoustically similar items is the phonological similarity effect.

Question 6Auditory Memory

Why does articulatory suppression impair performance on immediate verbal serial recall?

  1. It overloads the visuospatial sketchpad
  2. It erases long-term semantic knowledge
  3. It increases the capacity of the phonological store
  4. It blocks rehearsal of the phonological trace Correct answer.

Explanation

Articulatory suppression occupies the speech-production mechanism, preventing the subvocal rehearsal that refreshes decaying phonological traces. With rehearsal blocked, items fade faster and recall drops.

Question 7Auditory Memory

In the WME framework, which component is responsible for allocating attention and coordinating the other memory subsystems?

  1. Central executive Correct answer.
  2. Phonological store
  3. Visuospatial sketchpad
  4. Episodic buffer

Explanation

The central executive is the attentional control system that supervises and coordinates the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. It does not itself store large amounts of modality-specific information.

Question 8Auditory Memory

The word length effect refers to the finding that immediate serial recall is poorer for lists of:

  1. Longer spoken words than shorter ones Correct answer.
  2. Abstract words than concrete ones
  3. Similar-sounding words than dissimilar ones
  4. High-frequency words than low-frequency ones

Explanation

Longer words take more time to articulate, so they can be rehearsed fewer times before decay and fewer fit within the phonological capacity limit. Hence recall is poorer for long than for short words.

Question 9Auditory Memory

A background radio playing speech impairs a person's immediate recall of visually presented words. This is best described as:

  1. The irrelevant speech effect Correct answer.
  2. The generation effect
  3. The suffix effect
  4. The recency effect

Explanation

Unattended background speech enters the phonological store and interferes with the rehearsal of to-be-remembered verbal material, producing the irrelevant speech effect. The interference occurs even though the visual words and the speech are in different modalities.

Question 10Auditory Memory

Adding an extra spoken word immediately after the final item of an auditorily presented list disproportionately impairs recall of that last item. This is known as:

  1. The suffix effect Correct answer.
  2. The phonological similarity effect
  3. The primacy effect
  4. The word length effect

Explanation

An irrelevant spoken item appended to the end of an auditory list acts as a suffix that masks or displaces the recency portion of the phonological trace. Recall of the final items suffers most, which is the suffix effect.

Question 11Auditory Memory

Which result would most strongly support the claim that the phonological store holds acoustic rather than semantic information?

  1. Recall is unaffected by word frequency
  2. Recall is worse for phonologically similar than dissimilar words Correct answer.
  3. Recall is better for concrete than abstract words
  4. Recall is better for words than for nonwords

Explanation

If the store encodes sound, then items that sound alike will share similar codes and be confused, lowering recall. A phonological similarity disadvantage is therefore direct evidence for acoustic coding.

Question 12Auditory Memory

A patient shows severely reduced digit span for spoken material but performs normally on visuospatial span tasks. This dissociation is most consistent with damage to:

  1. The visuospatial sketchpad
  2. Long-term semantic memory
  3. The phonological loop Correct answer.
  4. The central executive

Explanation

A selective deficit in immediate verbal span with preserved visuospatial span isolates the phonological loop, which supports temporary speech-based storage. The preserved spatial performance argues against a general attentional or long-term deficit.

Question 13Auditory Memory

In the WME model, the episodic buffer is proposed mainly to explain how working memory:

  1. Binds multimodal information into integrated chunks Correct answer.
  2. Controls eye movements during reading
  3. Stores acoustic traces over long delays
  4. Encodes procedural motor skills

Explanation

The episodic buffer was introduced as a limited-capacity workspace that integrates information from the phonological loop, sketchpad and long-term memory into coherent episodes. This binding function goes beyond the modality-specific stores.

Question 14Auditory Memory

Which task would be the most direct measure of phonological short-term capacity, as opposed to general working memory?

  1. Trail-making test
  2. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
  3. Nonword repetition span Correct answer.
  4. Operation span

Explanation

Nonwords have no semantic support, so repeating them depends almost entirely on phonological storage and rehearsal. Span for nonwords therefore taps phonological short-term capacity rather than general executive control.

Question 15Auditory Memory

Why do nonwords produce lower immediate serial recall than real words of comparable length?

  1. Nonwords are always phonologically similar to each other
  2. Nonwords cannot be held in the phonological store
  3. Nonwords exceed the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad
  4. Nonwords lack lexical-semantic support in long-term memory Correct answer.

Explanation

Real words can be reconstructed with help from long-term lexical and semantic knowledge, whereas nonwords have no such support and rely on fragile phonological traces. This lexicality effect explains the recall advantage for words.

Question 16Auditory Memory

The 'inner voice' that silently rehearses verbal material in working memory corresponds to which process?

  1. Semantic priming
  2. Sensory echoic storage
  3. Visual imagery
  4. Subvocal articulatory rehearsal Correct answer.

Explanation

Subvocal rehearsal is the covert speech activity that refreshes items in the phonological store. It is the mechanism that the inner voice metaphor describes and that articulatory suppression disrupts.

Question 17Auditory Memory

Which finding best supports the idea that the phonological store has a time-based capacity limit?

  1. Recall correlates with how quickly items can be spoken Correct answer.
  2. Recall improves as list length increases
  3. Recall is unaffected by presentation modality
  4. Recall is better for abstract than concrete words

Explanation

If capacity is limited by how much can be rehearsed before decay, then faster articulation allows more items to be refreshed and boosts recall. The correlation between speaking rate and span is the classic evidence for a time-based limit.

Question 18Auditory Memory

A student listens to a lecture and later repeats a phrase verbatim without knowing its meaning. This most directly demonstrates:

  1. Autobiographical recollection of the event
  2. Phonological storage without semantic encoding Correct answer.
  3. Procedural consolidation of a skill
  4. Semantic elaboration of the material

Explanation

Verbatim repetition of a phrase whose meaning is unknown shows that the sound pattern was retained in the phonological store independently of meaning. Semantic encoding would require understanding the content.

Question 19Auditory Memory

Which manipulation is most likely to increase the size of the phonological similarity effect?

  1. Using items from different semantic categories
  2. Using items that rhyme with one another Correct answer.
  3. Presenting items visually with a long delay
  4. Using items of very different lengths

Explanation

Rhyming items share overlapping phonological codes, so they are highly confusable in the sound-based store. Greater acoustic overlap produces a larger similarity disadvantage in immediate recall.

Question 20Auditory Memory

In immediate serial recall, which error type is most characteristic of phonological coding?

  1. Omitting all items from the middle of the list
  2. Recalling items in exact reverse order
  3. Substituting an item that is semantically related
  4. Substituting an item that sounds similar Correct answer.

Explanation

Because items are stored as sound patterns, errors tend to involve other items with similar phonology, such as replacing a target with a rhyming or acoustically close word. Semantic substitutions are more typical of long-term memory tasks.

Question 21Auditory Memory

Which statement correctly distinguishes echoic memory from the phonological store?

  1. Echoic memory lasts minutes; the phonological store lasts milliseconds
  2. Echoic memory is a brief precategorical sensory trace; the phonological store holds categorical speech codes Correct answer.
  3. Echoic memory stores visual input; the phonological store stores spatial input
  4. Echoic memory is under executive control; the phonological store is fully automatic

Explanation

Echoic memory is a very short-lived, largely precategorical auditory sensory register, whereas the phonological store maintains speech-like codes over seconds with rehearsal. They differ in duration and in the degree of categorical processing.

Question 22Auditory Memory

Which of the following is the best example of chunking that expands effective auditory memory span?

  1. Writing the digits down after hearing them
  2. Listening to the digits in a noisy room
  3. Grouping a heard phone number as 3-3-4 digits Correct answer.
  4. Repeating the digits faster

Explanation

Chunking recodes individual items into larger meaningful units, so more information fits within a limited capacity. Grouping a phone number into familiar 3-3-4 segments is a classic auditory chunking strategy.

Question 23Auditory Memory

In a dichotic listening task, participants shadow one message and later show little memory for the ignored channel's content but can report some of its physical features. This pattern is best explained by:

  1. Consolidation of both channels into long-term memory
  2. Unlimited capacity for simultaneous verbal storage
  3. Full semantic processing of both channels
  4. An early filter that selects input by physical characteristics Correct answer.

Explanation

Retention of physical features but not content from the unattended channel indicates selection based on sensory characteristics before meaning is processed. This is consistent with an early-selection filter account of attention.

Question 24Auditory Memory

Which outcome would indicate that a participant is relying on long-term memory rather than the phonological store during a serial recall task?

  1. Recall of early list items survives a filled delay Correct answer.
  2. Recall declines as the words become longer
  3. Recall of final list items collapses after a filled delay
  4. Recall declines when the words rhyme

Explanation

Early items are thought to be transferred to long-term memory through rehearsal, so their recall resists a delay that clears short-term storage. Preservation of primacy after a filled delay therefore implicates long-term retention.

Question 25Auditory Memory

Which everyday situation most clearly taxes auditory working memory rather than long-term memory?

  1. Mentally reversing a heard sequence of three words Correct answer.
  2. Knowing the meaning of the word 'lantern'
  3. Recognizing a familiar song after two notes
  4. Recalling the name of your first school

Explanation

Mentally reversing a just-heard sequence requires holding and manipulating acoustic information online, which is the defining demand of auditory working memory. The other examples draw on stored long-term knowledge.

Question 26Auditory Memory

In the WME framework, the phonological store is best described as holding information in which format?

  1. A visual-spatial sketch that can be mentally rotated
  2. A semantic network of associated meanings
  3. A phonological code that decays over time Correct answer.
  4. An abstract propositional code independent of modality

Explanation

The phonological store retains speech-based representations that fade unless refreshed by rehearsal. This decay-based acoustic code is the defining property that distinguishes it from visuospatial or semantic storage.

Question 27Auditory Memory

A participant hears a list of digits and repeats them back in the order presented. Which measure does this task provide?

  1. Backward digit span
  2. Forward digit span Correct answer.
  3. Operation span
  4. Reading span

Explanation

Forward digit span requires verbatim reproduction of a sequence in presentation order, indexing immediate serial capacity. Backward span and complex spans add additional processing demands beyond simple storage.

Question 28Auditory Memory

Articulatory rehearsal in the WME model is carried out by which process?

  1. The inner voice Correct answer.
  2. The inner eye
  3. The inner ear
  4. The inner scribe

Explanation

Rehearsal is subvocal, speech-based repetition, conventionally labelled the inner voice. It refreshes decaying phonological traces and is blocked by concurrent articulation.

Question 29Auditory Memory

Immediate serial recall of spoken items is typically better for short words than for long words. This word length effect is usually attributed to which mechanism?

  1. Greater semantic richness of shorter words
  2. Larger long-term memory support for short words
  3. Superior acoustic encoding of high-frequency words
  4. Rehearsal time determining how many items survive decay Correct answer.

Explanation

Longer words take more time to rehearse, so fewer items can be refreshed before traces decay. The effect therefore reflects a time-limited rehearsal loop rather than meaning or frequency.

Question 30Auditory Memory

In dichotic listening with shadowing, participants typically remember little of the ignored channel's content but notice if the speaker's voice changes. What does this pattern suggest?

  1. Ignored speech is fully processed semantically but rapidly forgotten
  2. Ignored speech is filtered before any acoustic analysis occurs
  3. Ignored speech is processed to a shallow acoustic level but not to a semantic level Correct answer.
  4. Ignored speech is stored in the phonological store indefinitely

Explanation

Detection of physical voice changes shows acoustic features are registered, while poor content memory shows semantic analysis is limited. This supports an early selection account operating after basic sensory analysis.

Question 31Auditory Memory

Which finding is the classic evidence that the phonological store is acoustic rather than semantic?

  1. Recall is worse for semantically similar items than for dissimilar items
  2. Recall improves when items are longer
  3. Recall improves when items are presented visually
  4. Recall is worse for phonologically similar items than for dissimilar items Correct answer.

Explanation

The phonological similarity effect shows that sound-based overlap, not meaning-based overlap, disrupts retention. This points to an acoustic-phonological code in short-term storage.

Question 32Auditory Memory

Which statement best captures the difference between echoic memory and the phonological store?

  1. Echoic memory is under voluntary control, whereas the phonological store is automatic
  2. Echoic memory is a brief sensory trace, whereas the phonological store is a longer-lived rehearsal-supported buffer Correct answer.
  3. Echoic memory is semantic, whereas the phonological store is acoustic
  4. Echoic memory lasts several seconds, whereas the phonological store lasts only milliseconds

Explanation

Echoic memory is a very short pre-categorical sensory register, while the phonological store holds speech-based traces that persist longer when rehearsed. The two differ in duration and in dependence on attention and rehearsal.

Question 33Auditory Memory

A telephone number is remembered as three groups of digits rather than nine separate digits. Which concept does this illustrate?

  1. Suppression
  2. Chunking Correct answer.
  3. Primacy
  4. Decay

Explanation

Recoding separate items into larger meaningful units reduces the number of chunks held, expanding effective span. Chunking therefore raises capacity without changing the underlying store.

Question 34Auditory Memory

A listener must follow one conversation while ignoring a second nearby speaker. Which demand most directly taxes auditory working memory in this situation?

  1. Recognising the voice of the attended speaker from prior experience
  2. Retrieving the meaning of common words from long-term memory
  3. Maintaining the attended speaker's words while inhibiting the competing stream Correct answer.
  4. Perceiving the pitch of the competing speaker's voice

Explanation

Selective attention to one stream while suppressing another requires holding and updating attended content against interference, a working memory demand. Voice recognition and word meaning draw on long-term knowledge.

Question 35Auditory Memory

A participant shows a large phonological similarity effect for visually presented words but almost none for spoken words. Which interpretation is most consistent with the WME model?

  1. Visual input is stored semantically rather than phonologically
  2. Spoken input is retained only through long-term memory
  3. Spoken input bypasses the phonological store entirely
  4. Visual input must be recoded into a phonological code before entering the store Correct answer.

Explanation

Visual words gain access to the phonological store only through recoding, so similarity effects depend on that recoding step. Spoken input enters the store directly, which can produce a different pattern of effects.

Question 36Auditory Memory

A researcher wants to reduce the phonological similarity effect in a serial recall task. Which manipulation is most likely to succeed?

  1. Presenting items as spoken words
  2. Increasing the length of the items
  3. Presenting items as pictures that are hard to name Correct answer.
  4. Increasing the acoustic similarity of the items

Explanation

The effect depends on phonological coding, so preventing verbal recoding of visual material weakens it. Hard-to-name pictures limit access to the phonological store and thereby reduce the similarity advantage.

Question 37Auditory Memory

In immediate serial recall, a participant reports 'bat' instead of 'cat' and 'frog' instead of 'fog'. Which error pattern does this illustrate?

  1. Intrusion of items from previous lists
  2. Phonological confusions between similar-sounding items Correct answer.
  3. Semantic substitutions based on category membership
  4. Omissions caused by trace decay

Explanation

Errors that preserve most of the sound structure but change one phoneme reflect phonological coding of the memoranda. Such phoneme-level substitutions are characteristic of acoustic storage.

Question 38Auditory Memory

A patient has intact digit span but impaired performance on a task requiring simultaneous storage and updating of spoken words. Which conclusion is best supported?

  1. Phonological storage and executive control always decline together
  2. The phonological store cannot function without an intact episodic buffer
  3. Simple phonological storage can be spared while executive control of auditory material is impaired Correct answer.
  4. Digit span tasks necessarily measure executive control

Explanation

Dissociations between simple span and complex updating tasks indicate separable storage and executive components. Intact digit span with impaired updating points to a selective executive deficit.

Question 39Auditory Memory

Which experimental outcome would most clearly indicate that a participant is drawing on long-term lexical knowledge during immediate serial recall?

  1. Better recall for short than for long items
  2. Better recall for familiar words than for matched nonwords Correct answer.
  3. Poorer recall for phonologically similar items
  4. Poorer recall under concurrent articulation

Explanation

A word advantage over length-matched nonwords implicates stored lexical representations in supporting recall. The other patterns reflect phonological store properties rather than long-term knowledge.

Question 40Auditory Memory

Concurrent articulation during a serial recall task mainly disrupts which process?

  1. Visual encoding of the items' shapes
  2. Subvocal rehearsal of the to-be-remembered items Correct answer.
  3. Initial acoustic registration of the items
  4. Long-term storage of the items' meanings

Explanation

Producing irrelevant speech occupies the articulatory loop, preventing subvocal refreshment of memory traces. Sensory registration and long-term storage remain largely unaffected.

Question 41Auditory Memory

A student reads a dense passage aloud and then cannot summarise it, though the words were pronounced correctly. Which explanation fits the WME model best?

  1. The phonological store was overloaded by the printed letters' visual features
  2. Articulation consumed phonological resources that would otherwise support comprehension Correct answer.
  3. Long-term memory for the passage's vocabulary was insufficient
  4. The inner eye failed to encode the page layout

Explanation

Reading aloud engages the articulatory loop, competing with the phonological resources needed to maintain and integrate meaning. This resource competition can leave pronunciation intact while comprehension suffers.

Question 42Auditory Memory

Which task would best isolate the contribution of the phonological store from the contribution of the central executive?

  1. A task requiring updating of a running memory count
  2. A task requiring mental arithmetic while remembering words
  3. Immediate serial recall of a short list of spoken digits without a secondary task Correct answer.
  4. A dual-task procedure combining recall with random number generation

Explanation

Simple serial recall with no concurrent load places minimal demand on executive control, so it chiefly reflects phonological storage. Adding secondary tasks introduces executive involvement.

Question 43Auditory Memory

A listener can repeat a foreign phrase accurately for a few seconds but cannot do so after a delay filled with counting backwards. Which explanation is most consistent with auditory working memory?

  1. The phrase was transferred to long-term memory and then lost
  2. The phrase was stored in the visuospatial sketchpad and overwritten
  3. The phonological trace decayed once rehearsal was prevented by the interpolated task Correct answer.
  4. The listener never encoded the phrase acoustically

Explanation

Accurate immediate repetition shows the trace was encoded, and loss after a rehearsal-blocking delay shows decay without refreshment. This is the signature of a time-limited phonological store.

Question 44Auditory Memory

Which pattern of results would best support the claim that the phonological store operates automatically for heard speech?

  1. Similarity effects that disappear under articulatory suppression for spoken items
  2. Phonological similarity effects for spoken items even when participants are told to ignore the sounds Correct answer.
  3. Absence of similarity effects whenever participants are instructed to attend to meaning
  4. Similarity effects only for visually presented items

Explanation

Obligatory access is demonstrated when irrelevant heard speech is coded phonologically despite instructions to ignore it. This shows that entry to the store does not require deliberate attention.

Question 45Auditory Memory

A person with a very small digit span can nevertheless repeat a familiar song lyric of many syllables. Which factor best explains this apparent discrepancy?

  1. The phonological store expands permanently with musical training
  2. Lyrics are stored semantically and require no phonological coding
  3. Songs bypass the phonological store and use the visuospatial sketchpad
  4. Long-term knowledge allows the lyric to be represented as fewer, larger chunks Correct answer.

Explanation

Familiar sequences are supported by long-term representations that permit recoding into a small number of chunks. This can exceed the capacity observed with unrelated items.

Question 46Auditory Memory

Two conditions produce equal overall recall, but one shows a strong primacy advantage and the other a strong recency advantage. Which interpretation is most defensible?

  1. The conditions differ in the balance of long-term and short-term contributions to recall Correct answer.
  2. The conditions differ in the acoustic similarity of the items
  3. The conditions differ in the number of items presented
  4. The conditions differ in the participants' digit spans

Explanation

Primacy is typically supported by long-term rehearsal-based storage, while recency reflects a still-active short-term trace. Equal totals with different serial position curves therefore suggest different contributions from each system.

Question 47Auditory Memory

A researcher finds that irrelevant background speech impairs recall only when the speech changes across trials and not when a single syllable repeats. Which conclusion is best supported?

  1. Interference depends on the changing-state property of the sound rather than on its overall loudness Correct answer.
  2. Interference depends on the listener's intention to attend to the background
  3. Interference depends on the total acoustic energy of the background speech
  4. Interference depends on the semantic content of the background speech

Explanation

The changing-state effect shows that varying acoustic sequences disrupt serial rehearsal more than steady sounds of similar energy. This implicates interference from changing phonological content rather than simple loudness.

Question 48Auditory Memory

A patient shows normal performance on single-task digit span but a disproportionate drop when a concurrent tapping task is added. Which account best fits this dissociation?

  1. The patient has a deficit in executive coordination rather than in phonological storage capacity Correct answer.
  2. The patient has lost the phonological store entirely
  3. The patient has a selective deficit in visuospatial storage
  4. The patient has enhanced long-term memory support for digits

Explanation

Intact single-task span indicates preserved phonological storage, while the disproportionate dual-task cost points to impaired coordination of resources. The deficit therefore lies in executive control rather than in the store itself.

Question 49Auditory Memory

Which finding would most directly challenge the claim that rehearsal is necessary for maintaining items in the phonological store?

  1. Above-chance recall of heard items after a filled delay that prevents rehearsal Correct answer.
  2. Poorer recall of long words than of short words
  3. Better recall of spoken than of visually presented items
  4. Poorer recall of similar-sounding than of dissimilar items

Explanation

If items survive a rehearsal-blocking delay above chance, some maintenance must occur without rehearsal. The other findings are consistent with rehearsal-based accounts and do not challenge them.

Question 50Auditory Memory

A model predicts that two tasks both load the phonological store and should therefore interfere strongly. In a study, they interfere only when the secondary task requires changing phonological output. Which refinement is best supported?

  1. The phonological store does not exist
  2. Interference arises specifically from competing phonological output rather than from shared storage alone Correct answer.
  3. The secondary task must be semantically meaningful to interfere
  4. Interference arises from shared visual processing

Explanation

Selective interference tied to changing phonological output suggests a response- or rehearsal-based locus rather than passive storage overlap. The model should therefore specify the interference mechanism more precisely.