Sarah is studying in a noisy café. She finds it difficult to focus on her reading material and retain the information. This scenario illustrates which working memory challenge?

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In this scenario, Sarah is trying to focus and retain information while surrounded by a lot of auditory and visual distractions in a café. That increased distraction elevates the cognitive load on working memory, making it harder to process and store new information.
Option a: Encoding failure. This would involve problems with initially registering or encoding information into memory, often due to poor attention or insufficient processing at the time of learning. While a noisy environment can contribute to poor encoding, the core issue described here is the burden on working memory during active processing, not a failure to encode from the outset.
Option b: Capacity limit. Working memory does have a finite capacity, but the term typically refers to the amount of information that can be held at once, not specifically the presence of noise or distraction. The scenario emphasizes the difficulty caused by divided or taxed attention rather than simply a fixed capacity being exceeded.
Option c: Decay. Decay refers to information fading from memory over time when not rehearsed or refreshed. The problem described is not about rapid forgetting over time, but about sustaining attention and processing in a distracting environment, which aligns more with cognitive load than with decay.
Option d: Cognitive load. This captures the essence of the scenario: the noisy café increases extraneous cognitive load, overloading working memory and hindering learning and retention. The mental resources are stretched by the environment, impairing both focus and information consolidation.

Dashboard EDUC51076 | Fundamentals of Formal Education | 2024-25

Sarah is studying in a noisy café. She finds it difficult to focus on her reading material and retain the information. This scenario illustrates which working memory challenge?

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