Chapter 5 - Learning Flashcards
Total time hypothesis
The proposal that amount learned is a simple function of the amount of time spent on the learning task.
Nonsense syllables
Pronounceable but meaningless consonant-vowel-consonant items designed to study learning without the complicating factor of meaning.
Distributed practice
Breaking practice up into a number of shorter sessions; in contrast to massed practice, which comprises fewer, long, learning sessions.
Change blindness
The failure to detect that a visual object has moved, changed, or been replaced by another object.
Latent inhibition
Classical conditioning phenomenon whereby multiple prior presentations of a neutral stimulus will interfere with its involvement in subsequent conditioning.
Mere exposure effect
A tendency for a neutral stimulus to acquire positive value with repeated exposure
Amygdala
An area of the brain close to the hippocampus that is involved in emotional processing.
Hippocampus
Brain structure in the medial temporal lobe that is important for long-term memory formation.
Stem completion
A task whereby retention of a word is tested by presenting the first few letters.
Fragment completion
A technique whereby memory for a word is tested by deleting alternate letters and asking participants to produce the word.
Immersion method
A strategy for foreign language teaching whereby the learner is placed in an environment where only the foreign language is used.
Consolidation of memory:
A process whereby the memory becomes more firmly established. It is commonly now divided into two processes, synaptic consolidation a process that is assumed to involve the hippocampus and operate over a 24 hour timescale, and systems consolidation. This is assumed to operate over a much longer period, and to involve the transfer of information from the hippocampus to other parts of the neocortex.
Cell assembly
A concept proposed by Hebb to account for the physiological basis of long-term learning, which is assumed to involve the establishment of links between the cells forming the assembly.
Consolidation
The time-dependent process by which a new trace is gradually woven into the fabric of memory and by which its components and their interconnections are cemented together.
