Cognitive Flashcards
Memory
Learning that has persisted over time through storage and retrieval
Ebblinghaus Forgetting Curve
How our memory retention withstands over time
Parallel processing
Processing many aspects at once
Serial processing
Step by step processing, like a computer
Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental info
Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
Visual Encoding
Memorizing visual images
Acoustic Encoding
Memorizing sounds
Semantics
Remembering meaning of words
Explicit memory
Memory concerning facts and events
Implicit memory
Memory completed without awareness
Procedural memory
Style of implicit memory which aids the performance of specific tasks… like riding a bike
Iconic Memory
Sensory memory of a visual stimuli
Memory AIDS
Self explanatory
Encoding
The processing of information into the memory system-for example, by extracting meaning.
Storage
The retention of encoding information over time
Retrieval
The process of getting information out of memory storage
Sensory Memory
The immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
Short term memory
Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the memory is stored or forgotton
Long-term memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
Working memory
the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.
Parallel Processing
is the ability of the brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli of differing quality. Parallel processing is associated with the visual system in that the brain divides what it sees into four components: color, motion, shape, and depth.
Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information. Such as space time and frequency as well as well-learned information like word meaning
Effortful Processimg
Active processing of information that requires sustained effort.
Rehearsal
cognitive process in which information is repeated over and over as a possible way of learning and remembering it
Spacing Effect
the finding that long-term memory is enhanced when learning events are spaced apart in time, rather than massed in immediate succession
Serial Position Effect
Our tendency to recall best the last and first terms in a list
Visual Encoding
The encoding of picture images
Acoustic Encoding
The encoding of sounds, especially the sound of words
Semantic Encoding
The encoding of meaning including the meaning of words
Imagery
representations and the accompanying experience of sensory information without a direct external stimulus
Mnemonics
any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded
Chunking
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically
Iconic Memory
the brief retention of an image of a visual stimulus beyond cessation of the stimulus.
Photographic memory.
Echoic Memory
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 of 4 sentences.
Long term potentiation (LTP)
a process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
Flashbulb Memory
A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
Amnesia
The loss of memory
Implicit Memory
Retention independent of conscious recollection.
Explicit Memory
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
Hippocampus
A neural center that is located in the limpid system; helps process explicit memories for storage.
Cerebellum
The cerebellum plays an important part in our forming and storing of implicit memories
Recall
A measure of memory I’m which the person must retrieve information learned earlier
Recognition
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as multiple choice tests.
Relearning
A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.
Deja Vu
That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before” cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.
Mood congruent memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood
Proactive interference
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
Reactive interference
The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety arousing thoughts feelings and memories
Misinformation effect
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Source Amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about., or imagined. Also called misattribution. Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
Cognition
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.
Concept
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category
Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the; usually speedier - but usually error prone- use of heuristics.
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows are judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms.
Insight
A sudden and often Novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
Fixation
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Functional Fixedness
The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.
Representative Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
Availability heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident than correct-to over estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.
Belief Perseverance
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
Intuition
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, and conscious reasoning.
Framing
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning p.
Phoneme.
In language the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme
In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as prefix).
Grammar
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with, and understand others
Semantics
The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and the sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.
Syntax
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.
Babbling Stage
Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.
One word stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1-2 during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
Two-word stage
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two word statements.
Telegraphic speech
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- “go car” using mostly nouns and verbs.
Linguistic Determinism
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
