Chapter 7 Attention and Memory

Question 1

Absentmindedness

Answer 1

The inattentive or shallow encoding of events. (See page 300)

Question 2

Amnesia

Answer 2

A deficit in long-term memory, resulting from disease, brain injury, or psychological trauma, in which the individual loses the ability to retrieve vast quantities of information from long-term memory. (See page 300)

Question 3

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 3

A condition in which people lose the ability to form new memories. (See page 301)

Question 4

Blocking

Answer 4

The temporary inability to remember something that is known. (See page 300)

Question 5

Change blindness

Answer 5

A failure to notice large changes in one’s environment. (See page 276)

Question 6

Chunking

Answer 6

Organizing information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember. (See page 282)

Question 7

Confabulation

Answer 7

The unintended false recollection of episodic memories. (See page 308)

Question 8

Consolidation

Answer 8

A process by which immediate memories become lasting (or long-term) memories. (See page 271)

Question 9

Cryptomnesia

Answer 9

A type of misattribution that occurs when a person thinks he or she has come up with a new idea, yet has only retrieved a stored idea and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source. (See page 305)

Question 10

Declarative memory

Answer 10

The cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared. (See page 294)

Question 11

Encoding

Answer 11

The processing of information so that it can be stored. (See page 269)

Question 12

Encoding specificity principle

Answer 12

The idea that any stimulus that is encoded along with an experience can later trigger memory for the experience. (See page 290)

Question 13

Episodic memory

Answer 13

Memory for one’s personal past experiences. (See page 294)

Question 14

Explicit memory

Answer 14

The system underlying conscious memories. (See page 294)

Question 15

Flashbulb memories

Answer 15

Vivid episodic memories for the circumstances in which people first learned of a surprising, consequential, or emotionally arousing event. (See page 303)

Question 16

Forgetting

Answer 16

The inability to retrieve memory from long-term storage. (See page 298)

Question 17

Implicit memory

Answer 17

The system underlying unconscious memories. (See page 294)

Question 18

Long-term memory

Answer 18

The relatively permanent storage of information. (See page 283)

Question 19

Memory

Answer 19

The nervous system’s capacity to acquire and retain skills and knowledge. (See page 269)

Question 20

Memory bias

Answer 20

The changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with current beliefs or attitudes. (See page 302)

Question 21

Mnemonics

Answer 21

Learning aids, strategies, and devices that improve recall through the use of retrieval cues. (See page 292)

Question 22

Parallel processing

Answer 22

Processing multiple types of information at the same time. (See page 274)

Question 23

Persistence

Answer 23

The continual recurrence of unwanted memories. (See page 301)

Question 24

Proactive interference

Answer 24

When prior information inhibits the ability to remember new information. (See page 299)

Question 25

Procedural memory

Answer 25

A type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits. (See page 295)

Question 26

Prospective memory

Answer 26

Remembering to do something at some future time. (See page 296)

Question 27

Reconsolidation

Answer 27

Neural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for later retrieval. (See page 272)

Question 28

Retrieval

Answer 28

The act of recalling or remembering stored information when it is needed. (See page 270)

Question 29

Retrieval cue

Answer 29

Anything that helps a person (or a nonhuman animal) recall information stored in long-term memory. (See page 290)

Question 30

Retroactive interference

Answer 30

When new information inhibits the ability to remember old information. (See page 299)

Question 31

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 31

A condition in which people lose past memories, such as memories for events, facts, people, or even personal information. (See page 301)

Question 32

Schemas

Answer 32

Cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, process, and use information. (See page 288)

Question 33

Semantic memory

Answer 33

Memory for knowledge about the world. (See page 295)

Question 34

Sensory memory

Answer 34

A memory system that very briefly stores sensory information in close to its original sensory form. (See page 279)

Question 35

Serial position effect

Answer 35

The ability to recall items from a list depends on order of presentation, with items presented early or late in the list remembered better than those in the middle. (See page 283)

Question 36

Short-term memory

Answer 36

A memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness. (See page 281)

Question 37

Source amnesia

Answer 37

A type of amnesia that occurs when a person shows memory for an event but cannot remember where he or she encountered the information. (See page 304)

Question 38

Source misattribution

Answer 38

Memory distortion that occurs when people misremember the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory. (See page 304)

Question 39

Storage

Answer 39

The retention of encoded representations over time. (See page 269)

Question 40

Suggestibility

Answer 40

The development of biased memories from misleading information. (See page 306)

Question 41

Transience

Answer 41

Forgetting over time. (See page 298)

Question 42

Working memory

Answer 42

An active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use. (See page 281)