Final answer:
Acoustic confusions most accurately relate to working memory by potentially overloading the phonological loop, causing difficulties in processing and retaining verbal information.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that most accurately explains how acoustic confusions are related to working memory is: c) Acoustic confusions can overload the phonological loop. The phonological loop is a component of the working memory model that deals with auditory information. When we encounter sounds that are similar, such as words that rhyme or have close phonetic components, it can lead to acoustic confusions. These confusions can cause difficulties in processing and retaining verbal information in our working memory. This is not the same as proactive interference, which involves old information hindering the recall of new information, or memory trace decay which concerns the fading of the memory trace over time.
Proactive interference describes when previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn new information. On the other hand, acoustic confusions specifically relate to the similarity in sound, which can lead to errors in recalling verbal information that is being held in the phonological loop — one of the key components of Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model. This can result in an overload of the phonological loop's capacity, hindering the person's ability to maintain or manipulate auditory information in the short term.