Ch. 7 Cognition Flashcards
The persistence of learning over time; an active system in our nervous system that receives information from our senses that is retained as usable skills and knowledge, and then retrieved later.
Memory
Three basic stages of memory
Encoding, storage, retrieval
The process of breaking down information into a form we understand (more easily processed or stored by the brain).
Encoding
The retention of encoded information over time.
Storage
The process of getting information out of memory.
Retrieval
This model of memory assumes information processed requiring more mental effort will be remembered more efficiently and result in longer retention.
Levels of Processing Model
Model proposes that external events are first processed by our sensory memory, then some is encoded into our short term (or working) memory, then some of that info is encoded into long-term memory.
Three Box/Information-Processing Model
A split-second holding tank for incoming sensory information.
Sensory Memory
In a series of experiments, this researcher flashed a grid of nine letters, three rows, and three columns of nine letters for 1/20th of a second. The participants were able to recall any of the three rows perfectly.
George Sperling
A split-second perfect memory of a scene.
Iconic Memory
Perfect brief (3-4 second) memory for sounds.
Echoic Memory
This allows us to encode what we are attending to or what is important to us.
Selective Attention
Once a sensory message entered sensory memory and you knew that it was important, you switched attention to that message and it was encoded in short-term memory.
Cocktail Party Effect
Events are encoded as a series of sounds.
Acoustic Codes
Information is encoded as a visual image.
Visual Codes
Encoded as a sense of the meaning of the event.
Semantic Codes
Limited, relatively brief, activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is either stored permanently or forgotten; Holds memories we are currently working with and are aware of in our consciousness; these memories usually fade in 10 to 30 seconds; this type of memory is limited to seven items.
Short-term Memory (working memory)
Grouping items into no more than seven groups; discovered by George Miller; “magical number seven, plus or minus two.”
Chunking
Memory aids; examples of chunking; i.e SOH CAH TOA
Mnemonic Devices
Our relatively permanent and limitless storehouse for information.
Long-term Memory
Conscious memories of facts or events we actively tried to remember.
Explicit Memories (Declarative Memories)
Unintentional memories that we may not even realize we have; these memories are stored in the cerebellum.
Implicit Memories (Nondeclarative memories)
Memories of specific events, stored in a sequential series of events. i.e the last time you went to the store.
Episodic Memory
General knowledge of the world, stored as facts, meanings, or categories; i.e the difference between the terms effect and affect.
Semantic Memory
Memories of skills and how to perform them; memories are sequential but may be complicated to explain in words; i.e how to throw a curveball.
Procedural Memory
Memory disorder characterized by an inability to form memories from the time of the injury or future memories; patients can no longer form new explicit memories.
Anterograde Amnesia
The process of matching a current event or fact with one already in memory; i.e a multiple choice test.
Recognition
Retrieving a memory with an external cue; i.e a free-response question.
Recall
A stimulus that prompts the brain to retrieve a piece of information from memory.
Retrieval Cues
