chap 5 key terms Flashcards
acronym
Acronym- an abbreviation formed from the first letters of each word in a title or procedure that can be pronounced as a word (e.g. ANZAC); can include initialisms that cannot be pronounced as words (e.g. FBI).
acrostic
Acrostic- a poem, word puzzle or other composition in which initial letters in each line form a word or words that the composition is about; or, a memorable phrase in which the first letter of a term in a sequence of terms to be remembered.
alzheimers disease (AD)
Alzheimer’s disease (AD)- a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative brain disease in which amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles disrupt neural functions, causing cell death and atrophy of the brain; early hippocampal damage disrupts consolidation of explicit memory first followed by progressive loss of existing episodic and semantic memories due to neocortical damage.
amygdala
Amygdala- An almond shaped brain structure located within each temporal lobe in front of the hippocampus; associates emotional information with explicit memories; plural amygdalae.
aphantasia
Aphantasia- The term used to describe people who experience reduced or absent voluntary mental imagery.
autobiographical memory (ABM)
Autobiographical memory (ABM)- the component of explicit memory that represents our episodic memories of personally experienced evens and semantic self-knowledge.
basal ganglia
Basal ganglia- a group of brain structures located at the base of the forebrain and in the midbrain that play important roles in controlling voluntary movement.
brain imaging studies
Brain imaging studies- studies that use imaging techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain structure and function.
brain legion study
Brain lesion study- a brain research technique in which patients with damage (lesions) to a specific region of the brain are studied to determine the effects of the lesion on behaviour and cognition; can include post-mortem dissection and structural and functional brain imaging of living patients.
cerebellum
Cerebellum- the major hindbrain structure; it controls movement, balance and coordination; and affects cognitive function by regulating the speed, consistency and appropriateness of mental processes.
cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex- The layers of grey matter that cover the outside of the cerebral hemispheres, consisting mostly of the neocortex; it includes multiple distinct functional regions associated with the higher cognitive processes of attention, thought, perception, memory and language as well as sensory-motor processing; also called telencephalon.
encoding
Encoding- the processing of information in short-term memory to transfer it to long-term memory.
episodic autobiographical memory (EAM)
Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM)- the component of explicit long-term memory used for storing and retrieving memories of personally experienced events and for imagining ourselves experiencing future events; accompanied by the feeling of mental time travel; also called episodic memory.
explanatory power
Explanatory power- the ability of a model or theory to explain the phenomenon of interest.
explicit memory
Explicit memory (declarative memory)- the kind of long-term memory we use when consciously remembering information about facts (semantic memory) or events (episodic memory).
hippocampus
Hippocampus- an organ deep in the temporal lobe that is involved in encoding, storing and retrieving explicit memories, and in particular the consolidation of episodic memories.
implicit memory
Implicit memory (non-declarative memory)- the kind of long-term memory that is demonstrated through changes in behaviour and adaptive responses as a result of repetition or practice, without conscious recollection of the knowledge that underlies the performance; can operate independently of the hippocampus.
long term memory (LTM)
Long-term memory (LTM)- The set of memory storage systems that enables us to store and retrieve knowledge and skills acquired over a lifetime with apparently unlimited capacity.
mental imagery
Mental imagery- the conscious experience of perception-like representations without corresponding sensory input.
method of loci
Method of loci- a mnemonic technique in which the items to be remembered are associated with specific locations on a familiar route or within a building or landscape, or even the night-sky.
mnemonic
Mnemonic- any device or technique used to assist encoding, storage and retrieval of memories; usually by creating an association between information to be remembered and existing knowledge; also called memory-aid.
multi store model of memory
Multi-store model of memory- the model of human memory systems and processes descried by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), including the 3 memory storage systems of sensory, short-term and long-term memory and the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval.
neocortex
Neocortex- the largest structure of the cerebral cortex, comprising 80% of cortical grey matter other than the allocortex; modified through learning throughout life with specialised regions for higher cognitive functions involved in attention, thought, and language and sensory-motor processing.
oral cultures
Oral cultures- human cultural groups who use methods other than written language to store and pass down knowledge.
retrieval
Retrieval- the process of bringing to mind knowledge of events or facts stored in explicit memory, or of initiating and executing an implicit procedural memory.
semantic memory
Semantic memory- the component of explicit long-term memory that we use when we encode, store and retrieve factual and conceptual knowledge, and to recognise objects, people or places; accompanied by awareness of knowing without a feeling of reliving the past.
sensory memory
Sensory memory- the set of temporary memory stores with large capacity that enable sensory information to persist for a very brief duration so that goal-relevant information can be attended and encoded into short-term memory; includes iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) sensory memory.
short term memory (STM)
Short-term memory (STM)- a temporary memory store that represents information that is the current focus of attention, with limited capacity (5-9 items with an average of 7) and a duration of several seconds or for as long as information can be actively rehearsed.
song lines
Song lines- the sung narratives encoded in physical routes across Country and in constellations in the night-sky that convey ancestral knowledge of Country; also known as song-spirals or Dreaming.
storage
Storage- the retention of information in memory over time.
