Chapter 7 Flashcards
Interconnections between Acquisition and Retrieval
Context-Dependent Learning
Pattern of data in which materials learned in one setting are remembered when the person returns to that setting, but are less remembered in other settings.
Context Reinstatement
Strategy of re-creating the thoughts and feelings of the learning episode even if, at the time of recall, I am in a different place.
Encoding Specificity
Tendency to place in memory both the materials to be learned and also some amount of the context of those materials. Will be remembered later on in a similar context.
Nodes
Unit within an associative network. Represent ideas or concepts.
Associations
Functional connections used to link nodes or detectors in their network.
Activation Level
Measure of current status for a node or detector. Activation level is increased if the node or detector received the appropriate input from its associated nodes or detectors; activation level will be high if activated recently.
Response Threshold
Quantity of information or activation needed to trigger a response.
Fires
Responding to a stimulus electrically or chemically firing.
Subthreshold Activation
Activation levels below response threshold. Will not trigger a response, but eventually leads to an activation level.
Summation
Addition of two or more inputs so that the effect of the combined inputs is greater than the effect of any one of the inputs by itself.
Spreading Activation
Process where activation travels from one node to another through associative links.
Lexical-Decision Task
Participants are shown a series of letter sequences on a computer screen. Some spell words and some do not. Yes if it is a word, No if it is not. They look up these words in their mental dictionary and are timed.
Semantic Priming
Process in which activation of an idea in memory causes activation to spread to other ideas related to the first in meaning.
Recall
Memory retrieval of past stimuli that were encountered.
Recognition
Task of memory retrieval in which the items to be remembered are presented and the person must decide whether or not the item was encountered in some earlier circumstance.
Source Memory
I do not have any recollection of the source of my current knowledge.
Familiarity
Subjective feeling that someone has encountered a stimulus before.
Attribution
Step of explaining a feeling or event by identifying factors that are the cause of the current feeling or event.
Remember/Know Distinction
Pressing one button if they actually recall the episode of encountering a particular item, and pressing a different button if they do not recall the encounter but just have the broad feeling that the item must have been on the earlier list.
Word-Stem Completion
Participants are given three or four letters like “CLA” and must complete the word (e.g. “CLAM”). They usually fill in a word they have seen recently or frequently.
Explicit Memories
Memory revealed by direct memory testing and drawing on knowledge of the past.
Direct Memory Testing
Testing that urges me to remember the past.
Implicit Memories
Memory revealed by indirect memory testing with usually priming effect. Being influenced by past experiences.
Indirect Memory Testing
My behavior is demonstrably influenced by a prior event, but I may be unaware of this.
Illusion of Truth
Statements were subsequently judged to be more credible than sentenced never heard before.
Source Confusion
Memory error in which one misremembers where a bit of information was learned or where a particular stimulus was last encountered.
Processing Pathway
Sequence of detectors, connections between detectors that the activation flows through in recognizing a specific stimulus.
Processing Fluency
Speed and ease with which the pathway will carry activation.
Amnesia
Loss of memory.
Retrograde Amnesia
Person is unable to recall events that occurred just before the blow to the head.
Anterograde Amnesia
Person has disruption of memory for experiences after the onset of amnesia.
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Clinical syndrome characterized by anterograde amnesia. Often coming from malnutrition common among long-term alcoholics.
