Chapter 1 - Intro

Question 1

Verbal learning

Answer 1

A term applied to an approach to memory that relies principally on the learning of lists of words and nonsense syllables

Question 2

Reductionism

Answer 2

The view that all scientific explanations should aim to be based on a lower level of analysis: psychology in terms of physiology, physiology in terms of chemistry, and chemistry in terms of physics.

Question 3

Gestalt psychology

Answer 3

An approach to psychology that was strong in Germany in the 1930s and that attempted to use perceptual principles to understand memory and reasoning.

Question 4

Schema

Answer 4

Proposed by Bartlett to explain how our knowledge of the world is structured and influences the way in which new information is stored and subsequently recalled.

Question 5

Model

Answer 5

A method of expressing a theory more precisely, allowing predictions to made and tested

Question 6

Modal model

Answer 6

A term applied to the model of memory developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968).

Question 7

Sensory memory

Answer 7

A term applied to the brief storage of information within a specific modality.

Question 8

Iconic memory

Answer 8

A term applied to the brief storage of visual information.

Question 9

Masking

Answer 9

A process by which the perception and/or storage of a stimulus is influenced by events occurring immediately before presentation (forward masking) or more commonly after (backward masking).

Question 10

Short-term memory (STM)

Answer 10

A term applied to the retention of small amounts of material over periods of a few seconds.

Question 11

Working memory

Answer 11

A memory system that underpins our capacity to “keep things in mind” when performing complex tasks.

Question 12

Long-term memory

Answer 12

A system or systems assumed to underpin the capacity to store information over long periods of time.

Question 13

Explicit/declarative memory

Answer 13

Memory that is open to intentional retrieval, whether based on recollecting personal events(episodic memory) or facts (semantic memory).

Question 14

Implicit/nondeclarative memory

Answer 14

Retrieval of information from long-term memory through performance rather than explicit conscious recall or recognition.

Question 15

Semantic memory

Answer 15

A system that is assumed to store accumulative knowledge of the world.

Question 16

Episodic memory

Answer 16

A system that is assumed to underpin the capacity to remember specific events.

Question 17

Mental time travel

Answer 17

A term coined by Tulving to emphasize the way in which episodic memory allows us to relive the past and use this information to imagine the future.

Question 18

Classical conditioning

Answer 18

A learning procedure whereby a neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell) that is paired repeatedly with a response-evoking stimulus (e.g. meat powder), will come to evoke that response (salivation).

Question 19

Priming

Answer 19

The process whereby presentation of an item influences the processing of a subsequent item, either making it easier to process (positive priming) or more difficult (negative priming).