Chapter 8 Flashcards
Inference
refers to the logical interpretations and conclusions that were never part of the original stimulus material
Semantic memory
our organized knowledge about the world
Episodic Memory
contains information about events that happen to us (personal experiences)
Category
a set of objects that belong together
Concept
your mental representations of a category
Situated Cognition Approach
we make use of information in the immediate environment or situation; as a result, our knowledge often depends on the context that surrounds us
Prototype
the item that is the best, most typical example of a category; the ideal representative of this category
Prototype Approach
you decide whether a particular item belongs to a category by comparing this item with a prototype
Prototypicality
the degree to which members of a category are representative of their category
Graded structure
categories begin with the most representative or prototypical members, and it continues on through the category’s nonprototypical members
Typicality effect
occurs when people judge typical items (prototypes) faster than items that are not typical (nonprototypes)
Semantic priming effect
people respond faster to an item if it was preceded by an item with similar meaning
Family resemblance
no single attribute is shared by all examples of a concept; however, each example has at least one attribute in common with some other example of the concept
Superordinate-level categories
higher-level or more general categories
Basic-level categories
moderately specific
Subordinate-level categories
lower-level or more specific categories
Exemplar approach
argues that we first learn information about some specific examples of a concept; then we classify each new stimulus be deciding how closely it resembles all of those specific examples
Exemplar
the term for each specific example of a concept stored in memory
Network models
propose netlike organization of concepts in memory, with numerous interconnections
Node
one unit located within a network (each concept is represented as a node that gets activated when one sees or hears the name of a concept)
Spreading activation
activation of a node expands or spreads from one node to other connected nodes
ACT-R
an acronym for “Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational” –this approach attempts to account for a wide variety of tasks
Declarative knowledge
knowledge about facts and things
Propositional network
a pattern of interconnected propositions
Proposition
the smallest unit of knowledge that people can judge to be either true of false
-propositions are abstract, and do not represent a specific set of words
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach
proposes that cognitive processes can be represented by a model in which activation flows through networks that link together a large number of simple, neuron-like units
Spontaneous generalization
using individual cases to draw inferences about general information
-accounts for some of the memory errors and distortions we experience and can also help explain stereotyping
Default assignment
a guess based on information from other similar people or objects
Connection weights
The connections between these neuron-like units are weighted, and these connection weights determine how much activation one unit can pass on to another unit. As you learn more information, the values of these weights will change.
Graceful degradation
The brain’s ability to provide partial memory
What is Graceful degradation closely related to?
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Schema
a generalized, well-integrated knowledge about a situation, an event, or a person
Schema Therapy
the clinician and the client may work together in order to explore the client’s core beliefs and create appropriate new, more helpful strategies
Script
a common kind of schema that is a simple, well-structured sequence of events in a specific order; associated with a highly familiar activity
Life script
a list of events that a person believes would be most important throughout their lifetime
Boundary extension
refers to our tendency to remember having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was actually shown
Abstraction
a memory process that stores the meaning of a message, rather than the exact words
Verbatim memory
word-for-word recall
False alarm
occurs when people “remember” an item that was not originally presented
Constructive model of memory
people integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas. Later, they believe that they have already seen those complex sentences because they have combined the various facts in memory
Pragmatic view of memory
people pay attention to the aspect of a message that is most relevant to their current goals
Memory integration
our background knowledge encourages us to take in new information in a schema-consistent fashion; as a result, people may remember this schema-consistent information, even though it was not part of the original stimulus material
Gender Stereotypes
beliefs and opinions that we associate with females and males
Explicit memory task
directly instructs participants to remember information
Implicit memory task
asks people to perform a cognitive task that does not directly ask for recall or recognition
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
based on the principle that people can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words
