Chapter 4-6 Review Flashcards
amnesia
Inability to store and retrieve information; loss of memory
articulatory control process
a component of the phonologica loop that automatically refreshes and maintains the elements in the phonological store as if they were being rehearsed through a subvocal process (no sound is actually made)
autism spectrum disorder
a congenital disorder involving deficits in social and communication skills that covers a wide range and intensity of symtoms. Children with this disorder do not appear to attend to faces in early childhood as much as children typically do. Tend to focus more in the mouth than the eyes.
autobiographical memory
Memory for personal past experiences; retrospective memory of events in your life
Depends on: 1. Capacity for self-reflection. 2. A sense of personal ownership. 3. The ability to think about time as an unfolding of personal happenings centered around yourself
bottom-up processing
Extracting primitive or basic elements from a stimulus and creating a higher-level understanding of it
central executive
A component of working memory that coordinates the activities of the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer; it also communicates with long-term memory via the episodic buffer. It is not a memory store, but rather a control system that guides attention and allocates resources to maximize performance.
chunk
Single units of information
chunking
relating items to what you already know increases the capacity of short-term memory by storing items in grouops; the average adult can hold 5-9 items/chunks in short-term memory
cognitive interview
a method used to enhance recall of an observed or experienced event
- Ask observer to imagine he is at the crime scene witnessing the event and recount the event in as much detail
- Recall everything, event things that are incomplete or don’t understand, but if they remember it report it
- Recount event in different order, to have them think of all of what happened and not have them skip anything
cross-race effect
Difficulty recognizing faces of people from a different race
declarative memories
memory that can be described to others if you are asked to recall it
distinctive features theory
this theory assumes that all complex perceptual stimuli are composed of distinctive and separable attibutes that allow observers to distinguish one object from another. It focuses on how humans and other animals recognize patterns by attending to low-level features of objects such as lines, angles, and dots
ecological validity
the degree to which experiments are based on how people operate in the real world, and are more realistic
elaborative rehearsal
Thinking about meaningful relationships among items to be learned and focusing on how they connect to other things you know. This type of strategy often results in long-term recall and recognition of the items learned
encoding specificity
the way in which information stored in memory will be recalled better (or worse) depending on the retrieval cue used to elicit the stored information
episodic buffer
A component of working memory that acts as an integrative system that places events occurring in the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop into a coherent sequence, along with the memory of the goals that initiated those events
episodic memory
the portion of long-term memory that stores and connects specific times, places, and events in a person’s life, and is therefore autobiographical in nature.
explicit memory
All information that we consciously seek to store and retrieve, such as personal history and general knowledge
feeling of knowing
The inability to recall something that you believe is stored somewehre in your memory
flashbulb memories
Memories of distinctive, surprising, or significant events thatseem to be stored in memory with photograph-like details; research has shown that such memories are not always completely accurate
geons
Any of 36 primitive shapes (geometric ions) that are the building blocks for indentifying 3-D objects. Such shapes are critical to appertn recognition because objects can be rotated in three dimensions and create an unlimited number of impressions on the retina
gestalt
The idea that we perceive the form or configuration of things before we understand their parts
implicit memory
A semiautonomous memory system that frees up cognitive resources so that you can concentrate on more demanding tasks; it allows you to put important mental functions that can be performed automatically in the background
infantile amnesia
Difficulty in retrieving autobiographical information of early childhood
inner scribe
A component of the visouspatial sketchpad that performs at least two functions. First, it refreshes all the information in the visouspatial sketchpad; and second, it briefly stores spatial relationships associated with bodily movements.
irrelevant speech effect
the ability of inconsequential background speech to interfere with silent verbal rehearsal
Korsakoff’s syndrome
Amnesia that usually results from malnutration due to excessive alcholol consuption; it is associated with damage to the mamillothalmic tract of the temporal lobes
law of closure
The experience of seeing a figure as a closed unit, even when the observer knows that there are open spaces
law of common fate
if two or more objects are moving in the same direction at the same speed, they will tend to be perceived as a group and share the same destiny
law of good continuation
the tendency to connect elements in a way that makes the elements eem continous or flowing in a particular direction; this can exert a powerful affect on what is perceived
Law of proximity
elements that are close together will be perceived as a coherent group and be differentiated from items that are far from them
law of similarity
Elements that look similar will be perceived as part of the same form or group; similarity can be based on size, brightiness, color, shape, or even orientation
law of symmetry
First, images that are perceived as symmetrical are experienced as belonging together; second, people tend to find symmetry in a figure even if it is otherwise disorganized
learning
the permanent change in behavior that results from experience
long-term memory
The aspect of memory that consists of all the knowledge and experience acquired throughout life
maintenance rehearsal
saying something repeatedly to keep it in mind. This sort of rote learning keeps items in short-term memory, but does not guarantee permanent ability to recall them
memory
the menta operations that store information as well as recover and retrive it at appropriate times
metamemory
the awareness of your memory system and what resides there. Metamemory is helpful in deciding whether a fact that isn’t immediately recalled is worht retrieving or not
modality effect
The different recall pattern of list items when they are visually or auditorily presented
negative recency
A tendency to recall items from the beginning of list (because they have been rehearsed) better than items from the end of a list
Pattern Recognition
The use of framentary pieces of sensory information to create a higher-level identification of what has been experienced. Although it often seems instantaneous, it can take years of experience to develop the ability to recognize patterns effortlessly
Perception
Becoming aware of something through the senses
perceptual memory
Awareness of physically based patterns that are difficult to describe, but are effortlessly recalled (E.G., the scent of roses, the taste of licorice, or the sights and sounds of your childhood neighborhood).
permastore
The phenomenon that once facts are stored in long-term memory they endure for nearly a lifetime
phological confusion
Memory that is worse for words or sentences that sound alike than for those that sound different; it can occur when wrods or sentences are presented visually or auditorily
phological store
a component of the phonological loop that acts as a reservoir to store acoustic representations of a stimulus
phonological loop
A subsytem in working memory dedicated to the temporary storage of sound-based information and representations
Pollyanna principle
a tendency for people to recall more pleasant than unpleasant life experiences
prevaricating
The tendency of people with Korsakoff’s syndrome to make up answers to questions rather than indicate that they do not remember; t heir feeling of knowing is usually incorrect
primacy effect
Better recall of the first items of a list
principle of Pragnanz
the mental steps that must be used to answer a question: encoding the question, comparing the encoded question with encoded facts stored in memory, and if the encoding of the question and facts match, answer the question
proactive interference
interference that occurs when previously learned information inhibits the ability to remember new information
procedural memory
stored knowledge that allows the skillful performance of taks even though individual parts of the task cannot be recalled or explained to others
prosopagnosia
a condition usually caused by brain disease or injury in which people are unable to recognize familiar faces; it is not the result of visual, intellectual, or memory deficits
prospective memory
a theory that explains the relationship between framing effects (presented as gains or losses) and the choices people make. Fenerally, people are more effected by the fear of loss than the prospect of equivalent gain.
prototype
An average, or typical instance of many different views of an object
prototype theory
a theory that pattern recognition occurs when the features of the object to be recognized overlap in some way with the features of the prototype
pure word deafness
individuals with this condition can hear sounds, read, write, and speak, but are unable to understand spoken language
recency effect
better recall of the last items of a list
recognition by components theory
the pattern recognition process that identifies features of 3-D objects
rehearsal
Paying attention to items in short-term memory
reminiscence bump
Heightened retrospective recall for autobiographical events that occurred between the ages of 10 to 25
retroactive interference
hindrance that occurs when new information makes it difficult to remember previously learned information
retrospective memory
an aspect of episodic memory that allows a person to travel back mentally in time to retrieve a fact, or to relieve an experience (e.g., remembering the first time you drove a car, or what you wore to the senior prom).
schizophrenia
a disorder in which people suffer difficulties with abnormal perception, moods, actions, and the ability to express themselves in a logical manner. An additional symtom of this disorder is difficulty recognizing faces.
semantic features
Words or gestures that convey packets of meaning to a listener; all systems of communication, no matter how primitive, have a cemantic component
semantic memory
A buffer memory system that hosts an incoming stream of information long enough for us to pay attention to it and sperates incming information from everything else occuring in our cognitive system. We are rarely conscious of its actions in everyday life. SOmetimes referred to as sensory information storage.
serial exhaustive search
examining every itme in short-term memory in tis entirety and continuing to search even after the item has been found
serial position effect
the probability of recalling items that the beginning and end of a list is higher than the probability of recalling items in the middle of a list.
short-term memory
Memory that contains our moment-to-moment conscious thoughts and perception; its contents endure only as long as we are paying attention to them.
source monitoring
Identifying where knowledge comes from; the ability to distinguish between new information about an event that was actually observed or experienced and information that was heard about the event. Inaccuracy of source monitoring can lead to false recollections
state-dependent learning
the ability to recall information is superior when a person is in the same physical state as when he or she learned the information (e.g., sober or intoxicated)
subjective organization
A unique way of encoding events specific to each person
template-matching theory
this theory assumes that we have stored away an unlimited number of patterns, literal copies corresponding to every object that we have experienced. These patterns are labeled with the name of the object and can be instantly matched to a new instance of the object.
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Temporary inaccessibility of word or fact in memory
top-down processing
After a preliminary guess is made about a stimulus (by using bottom-up processing), the pattern recognition process reduces the set of possibilities by selecting only low-level features that merit furhter analysis in order to complete the identification
visual cache
A component of the visuospatial sketchpad that temporarily stores visual information from perceptual experience and contains color, form, and some spatial inforamation of what is perceived.
visuospatial sketchpad
a component of working memory responsivle for storing visually presented information, such as drawings, or remembering kinesthetic (motor) movements, such as dance steps
word-length effect
Short-term memory span decreases when the length of words to be memorized increases
word-superiority effect
the ability recognize letters embedded in words more easily than when they are in random strings of letters or when they appear alone.
working memory
the set of mechanisms that underlies short term memory; a semipermanent memory store that endures for a lifetime and aids in learning new information
Retrograde amnesia
Where people cannot recall events or facts in their lives that occurred prior to some critical event that affected their brain.
Anterograde amnesia
Failure to add to memory after a critical event
Mnemonics
Strategy used to condense info, such as acronyms
