Question

"jamaal has to make an important phone call. unfortunately, his cell phone is not charged so he has to use his landline, which does not store phone numbers. to make the call, he has to get the number from his cell phone and remember it long enough to dial it on his landline. for this task, which memory is most important?"

Answer 1

Working memory

Working memory is a short-term memory system with limited capacity for temporarily storing and handling information needed to perform tasks at hand, learning and understanding. Working memory is also called ‘memory in action’ since it involves remembering and making use of information in the middle of a task.

If Jamaal rehearses the number he needs to dial on his landline, he is using working memory as he dials the number based off his memory. It is likely that Jamaal will forget the number moments after he dials it, which is a characteristic of working memory.