Chapter 9: Memory, Attention and Consciousness Flashcards
anterograde amnesia
loss, due to injury to the brain, in ability to form new long-term memories for events that occur after the injury
association
link between two memories or mental concepts, such that recall of one tends to promote recall of the other
association by contiguity
Aristotle’s principle that if two environmental events (stimuli) occur at the same time or one right after the other (contigously), those events will be linked together in the mind
association by similarity
Aristotle’s principle that events, or ideas that are similar to one another become linked/associated in the person’s mind (structure of memory), such that the thought of one tends to elicit the thought of the other
attention
process that controls the flow of information from the sensory store into working memory; any focusing of mental activity along a specific track (inner memories and knowledge or based on external stimuli)
automatic processes
cognitive processes that require no mental effort for their execution
- occures without intention and conscious awareness
- doesn’t interfere with the execution of other processes
- doesn’t improve with practice
- isn’t influenced by individual differences in intelligence, motivation, or education
central executive
component of the mind responsible for coordinating all activities of working memory and for bringing new information into working memory
chunking
strategy for improving ability to remember a set of items by grouping them mentally to form fewer items
consciousness
experiencing of percepts or other mental events in such a manner that one can report on them to others
consolidation
process by which a new memory becomes silidified in the brain, such that it is not easily forgotten
control processes
mental processes that operate on information in the memory stores and move information from one store to another
dual-processing theories
cognitive theories that propose that people have two general ways of processing information: fast, automatic, unconscious or slow, effortful, conscious
echoic memory
sensory memory for the sense of hearing
effortful processes
cognitive processes that consume some of the information-processing system’s limited capacity
- available to conscious awareness
- interferes with the execution of other processes
- improves with practice
- influenced by individual differnces in intelligence, motivation, or education
elaboration (elaborative rehersal)
process of thinking about an item of information in such a way to tie the item mentally to other information in memory, which helps to encode the item into long-term memory
encoding
mental process by which long-term memories are formed
encoding rehersal
active mental process by which a person strives to encode information into long-term memory
episodic memory
explicit memory of past events (episodes) in one’s own life
executive functions
processes involved in regulating attention and in determining what to do with the information just gathered or retrieved from long-term memory
explicit memory
class of memory that can be consciously recalled and used to answer explicit questions about one knows or remembers
iconic memory
sensory memory for the sense of vision
implicit memory
memory that influences one’s behaviour or thought but does not itself enter consciousness
infantile amnesia
inability to remember events from infancy and early childhood
long-term memory
information that is retained in the mind for long periods
maintance rehersal
active mental process by which a person strives to hold information in short-term memory for a period of time
memory
- mind’s ability to retain information over time
2. information retained in the mind over time
memory stores
constructs that are conceived of as places where information is held in the mind
phonological loop
component of working memory responsible for holding verbal information
preattentive processing
analysis, at an unconscious level, in which the mind determines which stimuli are worth passing into working memory
priming
implicit memory process by which a stimulus (priming stimulus) activates (makes more retrievable)
procedural memory
class of implicit memory that enables a person to perform specific learned skills or habitual responses
prospective memory
remembering to do something in the future
retrieval cue
word/phrase/other stimulus that helps one retrieve a specific item of information from long-term memory
retrograde amnesia
loss, due to injury to the brain, of long term memories that had been formed before the injury
schema
mental representation of a concept; information stored in long-term memory that allows a person to identify a group of different events or items as members of the same category
script
variety of schema that represents in memroy the temporal organisation of a category of event
semantic meory
one’s storehouse of explicit general knowledge that is, of knowledge that can be expressed in words and is not mentally tied to experiences in one’s own life
sensory memory
memory trace that preserves the original information in a sensory stimulus for a brief period following the termination of the stimulus; it is experienced as if one is still sensing the original stimulus
short-term memory spam
number of pronouncable items of information that a person can retain in short-term memory at any given time
short-term store
memory store that can hold a limited amount of information for a matter of seconds; cognitive operations are executed in the short-term store and information can be maintained indefinitely in the short-term store and through operations such as rehearsal
Stroop interference effect
effect which a printed color word interferes with a person’s ability to name the color of ink in which the word is printed if the color is not the same as the color named by the word
temporal-lobe amnesia
loss in memory abilities that occurs as a result of damage to structures in the limbic system that lie under the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex
visuospatial sketchpad
component of working memory responsible for holding visual and spatial information
working memory
memory store that is considered to be the main workplace of the mind; among other things it is the seat of conscious thought and reasoning
