cognitive psych test 2 Flashcards
Learning
permanent change in behavior that results from experience
Memory
the mechanism that allows us to retain and retrieve information over time
Short term memory
the memory that contains our moment-moment conscious thoughts and perceptions, reflects our conscious awareness
Memory encoding
information from the environment is sorted into a form of information that can be stored
Memory storage
information from the environment is retained in the brain
Memory retrieval
information is retrieved from storage
Short term memory loss
damage to the brain can cause anterograde amnesia and extremely short attention spans
Digit span
assessment used to test short memory that tests memory span for digits (numbers)
Ebbinghaus experiment
used to determine the capacity of short term memory
people are asked to remember a list of nonsense syllables and the number of times they needed to look at the list was measured
for 1-7 syllables, people only had to look once
chunking
grouping information into related units, fit together as a pattern distinct from the surrounding information
Brown-Peterson Task
standard method of calculating the duration of STM
involves remembering a set of letters and numbers while also doing simple math
Retroactive interference
difficulty remembering old info due to new info getting in the way
Proactive interference
difficulty remembering new info due to old info getting in the way
rehearsal
repeating information over and over to retain it in STM
maintenance rehearsal
saying it repeatedly
elaborative rehearsal
thinking about the meaningful relationship between the items to be learned
results in enhanced long term recall
Sternberg task
used to test retrieval from STM
participants given grocery list then asked if certain items were on list
Serial Exhaustive Search Theory
theory that we search every item in our STM in response to a question
Serial position effect
items at the beginning and the end of a list are easiest to remember
Recency effect
improved recall of words at end of list because they are most recently encountered
Primacy effect
improved recall of words at beginning of list because they were first ones committed to memory
Negative recency
after 30 seconds, ability to recall last words on a list diminishes
Speed effect
the more quickly a list of words is presented, the harder it is to remember items at beginning of list
Modality effect
recall of list of items is different depending on how they were presented
last few items are better recalled when presented auditorily
Working memory
a limited capacity system that allows us to store and manipulate information temporarily to perform every day tasks, allows us to do cognitive tasks like reasoning, listening and making decisions
Miller, Galanter and Pribram theory
STM helps us interact with the world and accomplish our goals through working memory
Baddeley and Hitch model
process oriented model of working memory, includes phonological loop, episodic buffer, visuospatial sketchpad and central executive system
Phonological loop
system dedicated to the temporary storage of phonological information, connected to area for language processing
phonological state
acoustic representation of a stimulus
articulatory control process
resfreshes and maintains the elements in the phonological state
Visuospatial sketchpad
stores visually presented information or remembers motor movements, in right side of brain
visual cache
temporarily stores visual information and contains information about the form and color of what we percieve
inner scribe
refreshes all the stored information in the visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
integrates information from the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad into a coherent sequence of events
Central executive system
a control system in prefrontal cortex that coordinates the activities of the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
guides attention and allocates resources to maximize performance
executive functions
higher order, goal directed abilities
Working memory (retain and manipulate many pieces of info at the same time), Inhibition (override a dominant impulse) and Cognitive flexibility (shifting attention between two things)
EF skills are related to social-emotional competence and academic performance
Paced auditory serial addition task
measures EF skills in adults, participants add the numbers they hear and announce the sum (use all three executive functions)
phonological confusions
memory is worse for items that sound alike
word length effect
STM span decreases when the lengths of words increases
irrelevant speech effect
the ability of inconsequential background speech to interfere with silent verbal rehearsal
Long term memory
the aspect of our memory system that consists of all the experiences and knowledge we gather throughout our lifetime
Explicit memory
includes both personal experiences and general knowledge, includes all memories that we consciously seek to store and retrieve
Semantic memory
retains conceptual knowledge, discrete facts
Temporal lobe
Episodic memory
stores and connects the specific times, places and events in an individual’s life
autobiographical
Frontal lobe
Retrospective memory
memory for the past
Prospective memory
remembering to do things in the future, future action s are triggered by external factors (turn off oven when timer goes off) or self-initiated (take medicine at 5)
