Glossary

Question 1

Propagated electrical potential responsible for transmitting neural infor mation and for communication between neurons. Action potentials typically travel down a neuron’s axon. (2)

Answer 1

Action potential

Question 2

A subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of expe- rience, including memory for emotional events. (8)

Answer 2

Amygdala

Question 3

A technique in which people compare two problems that illustrate a principle. This technique is designed to help people discover similar structural features of cases or problems. (12)

Answer 3

Analogical encoding

Question 4

People find it difficult to apply analogies in laboratory settings, but routinely use them in real-world settings. (12)

Answer 4

Analogical paradox

Question 5

The use of analogies as an aid to solving problems. Typically, a solution to one problem, the source problem, is presented that is analogous to the solution to another problem, the target problem. (12)

Answer 5

Analogical problem solving

Question 6

Transferring experience in solving one problem to the solution of another, similar problem. (12)

Answer 6

Analogical transfer

Question 7

Making a comparison in order to show a similarity between two different things. (12)

Answer 7

Analogy

Question 8

A procedure used by early psychologists in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli. (1)

Answer 8

Analytic introspection

Question 9

An inference that connects an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence. See also Causal inference; Instrument inference. (11)

Answer 9

Anaphoric inference

Question 10

Area in the temporal lobe. Damage to the ATL has been connected with semantic deficits in dementia patients and with the savant syndrome. (9)

Answer 10

Anterior temple lobe (ATL)

Question 11

An illusion of movement perception that occurs when stimuli in different locations are flashed one after another with the proper timing. (3)

Answer 11

Apparent movement

Question 12

Rehearsal process involved in working memory that keeps items in the phonological store from decaying. (5)

Answer 12

Articulatory rehearsal process

Question 13

Interference with operation of the phonological loop that occurs when a person repeats an irrelevant word such as “the” while carrying out a task that requires the phonological loop. (5)

Answer 13

Articulatory suppression

Question 14

The ability of a computer to perform tasks usually associated with human intelligence. (1)

Answer 14

Artificial intelligence

Question 15

Focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities. (4)

Answer 15

Attention

Question 16

A rapid shifting of attention, usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement. (4)

Answer 16

Attentional capture

Question 17

Anne Treisman’s model of selective attention that proposes that selection occurs in two stages. In the first stage, an attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lets through the attended message and also the unattended message, but at lower (attenuated) strength. (4)

Answer 17

Attenuation model of attention

Question 18

In Treisman’s model of selective attention, the attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning. Attended messages pass through the attenuator at full strength, and unattended messages pass though with reduced strength. (4)

Answer 18

Attenuator

Question 19

Memory for specific events from a person’s life, which can include both episodic and semantic components. (6)

Answer 19

Autobiographical Memory

Question 20

Processing that occurs automatically, without the person’s intending to do it, and that also uses few cognitive resources. Automatic processing is associated with easy or well-practiced tasks. (4)

Answer 20

Automatic processing

Question 21

Events that are more easily remembered are judged to be more probable than events that are less easily remembered. (13)

Answer 21

Availability heuristic

Question 22

Part of the neuron that transmits signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon. (2)

Answer 22

Axon

Question 23

A process by which learning can occur in a connectionist network, in which an error signal is transmitted backward through the network. This backward transmitted error signal provides the information needed to adjust the weights in the network to achieve the correct output signal for a stimulus. (9)

Answer 23

Back propagation

Question 24

When a word has more than one meaning and all meanings a equally likely. (11)

Answer 24

Balanced dominance

Question 25

The idea that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by the prior probability (our initial belief) and the likelihood (the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome). (3)

Answer 25

Bayesian inference

Question 26

A condition caused by brain damage in which a person has difficulty focusing attention on individual objects. (4)

Answer 26

Balint’s syndrome

Question 27

The relative proportions of different classes in a population. Failure to consider base rates can often lead to errors of reasoning. (13)

Answer 27

Base rate

Question 28

In Rosch’s categorization scheme, the level below the global (superordinate) level (e.g., “table” or “chair” for the superordinate category “furniture”). According to Rosch, the basic level is psychologically special because it is the level above which much information is lost and below which little is gained. See also Global level; Specific level. (9)

Answer 28

Basic level

Question 29

The approach to psychology, founded by John B. Watson, which states that observable behavior provides the only valid data for psychology. A consequence of this idea is that consciousness and unobservable mental processes are not considered worthy of study by psychologists. (1)

Answer 29

Behaviourism

Question 30

Tendency to think a syllogism is valid if its conclusion is believable or that it is invalid if the conclusion is not believable. (13)

Answer 30

Belief bias

Question 31

When a word has more than one meaning and one meaning is more likely. (11)

Answer 31

Biased dominance

Question 32

Process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create perception of a coherent object. (4)

Answer 32

Binding

Question 33

The problem of explaining how an objects individual features become bound together. Bottleneck model Model of attention that proposes that incoming information is restricted at some point in so only a portion information gets through to conscious ness. processing, example model. (4)

Answer 33

Binding problem

Question 34

Model of attention that proposes that incoming information is restricted at some point in processing, so only a portion of the information gets through to consciousness. Broadbent’s model of attention is an example of a bottleneck model. (4)

Answer 34

Broadbent’s model

Question 35

Processing that starts with information received by the receptors. This type of processing is also called data-based processing (3)

Answer 35

Bottom-up processing

Question 36

A procedure in which a specific area is removed from an animal’s brain. It is usually done to determine the function of this area by assessing the effect on the animal’s havior. (3)

Answer 36

Brain ablation

Question 37

Technique such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI results in images of the brain that represent brain activity. In cognitive psychology, activity is measured in response to specific cognitive tasks. (2)

Answer 37

Brain imaging

Question 38

A condition associated with damage to Broca’s area, in the frontal lobe, characterised by labored ungrammatical speech and difficulty in understanding some types of sentences. (11)

Answer 38

Broca’s aphasia

Question 39

An area in the frontal lobe associated with the production of language. Damage to this area causes Broca’s aphasia. (2)

Answer 39

Broca’s area

Question 40

A problem, first described by Duncker, in which a person is given a number of objects and is given the task of mounting a candle on a wall so it can burn without dripping wax on the floor. This problem was used to study functional fixedness. (12)

Answer 40

Candle problem

Question 41

A syllogism in which the premises and conclusion describe the relationship between two categories by using statements that begin with All, No, or Some. (13)

Answer 41

Categorical syllogism

Question 42

The process by which objects are placed in categories. (9)

Answer 42

Categorisation

Question 43

Groups of objects that belong together because they belong to the same class of objects, such as “houses,” “furniture,” or “schools. (9)

Answer 43

Category

Question 44

A result of brain damage in which the patient has trouble recognizing objects in a specific category. (9)

Answer 44

Category-specific memory impairment

Question 45

An inference that results in the conclusion that the events described in one clause or sentence were caused by events that occurred in a previous clause or sentence. See also Anaphoric inference; Instrument inference. (11)

Answer 45

Causal inference

Question 46

Part of a cell that contains mechanisms that keep the cell alive. In some neurons, the cell body and the dendrites associated with it receive information from other neurons. (2)

Answer 46

Cell body

Question 47

The part of working memory that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. The “traffic cop” of the working memory system. (5)

Answer 47

Central executive

Question 48

The 3-mm-thick outer layer of the brain that contains the mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions such as perception, language, thinking, and problem solving. (2)

Answer 48

Cerebral cortex

Question 49

Difficulty in detecting changes in similar, but slightly different, scenes that are presented one after another. The changes are often easy to see once attention is directed to them but are usually undetected in the absence of appropriate attention. (4)

Answer 49

Change blindness

Question 50

Detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another. (5)

Answer 50

Change detection

Question 51

Time to respond to one of two or more stimuli. For example, in the Donders experiment, subjects had to make one response to one stimulus and a different response to another stimulus. (1)

Answer 51

Choice reaction time

Question 52

Used in connection with the idea of chunking in memory. A chunk is a collection of elements that are strongly associated with each other but weakly associated with elements in other chunks. (5)

Answer 52

Chunk

Question 53

Combining small units into larger ones, such as when individual words are combined into a meaningful sentence. Chunking can be used to increase the capacity of memory. (5)

Answer 53

Chunking

Question 54

A procedure in which pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a response causes the neutral stimulus to elicit that response. (1,6)

Answer 54

Classical conditioning

Question 55

The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations. (4)

Answer 55

Cocktail party effect

Question 56

The form in which stimuli are represented in the mind. For example, information can be represented in visual, semantic, and phonological forms. (6)

Answer 56

Coding

Question 57

The mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. (1)

Answer 57

Cognition

Question 58

A feature of some semantic network models in which properties of a category that are shared by many members of a category are stored at a higher level node in the network. For example, the property “can fly” would be stored at the node for “bird” rather than at the node for “canary.” (9)

Answer 58

Cognitive economy

Question 59

An explanation for the reminiscence bump, which states that memories are better for adolescence and early adulthood because encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability. (8)

Answer 59

Cognitive hypothesis

Question 60

A procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption. It also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves back in the scene and recreate emotions they were feeling, where they were looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives. (8)

Answer 60

Cognitive interview

Question 61

Mental conception of a spatial layout. (1)

Answer 61

Cognitive map

Question 62

Field concerned with studying the neural basis of cognition. (2)

Answer 62

Cognitive neuroscience

Question 63

The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. In short, cognitive psychology is concerned with the scientific study of the mind and mental processes. (1)

Answer 63

Cognitive psychology

Question 64

A shift in psychology, beginning in the 1950s, from the behaviourist approach to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behavior in terms of the mind. One of the outcomes of the cognitive revolution was the introduction of the information-processing approach to studying the mind. (1)

Answer 64

Cognitive revolution

Question 65

The representation of a text or story in a reader’s mind so that information in one part of the text or story is related to information in another part. (11)

Answer 65

Coherence

Question 66

Knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions shared between two speakers. (11)

Answer 66

Common ground

Question 67

A mental representation of a class or individual. Also, the meaning of objects, events, and abstract ideas. An example of a concept would be the way a person mentally represents “cat” or house. (9)

Answer 67

Concept

Question 68

Knowledge that enables people to recognize objects and events and to make inferences about their properties. (9)

Answer 68

Conceptual knowledge

Question 69

A hypothesis, associated with Paivio’s dual coding theory, that states that concrete nouns create images that other words can hang onto, which enhances memory for these words. (10)

Answer 69

Conceptual peg hypothesis

Question 70

The final statement in a syllogism, which follows from the two premises. (13)

Answer 70

Conclusion

Question 71

Syllogism with two premises and a conclusion, like a categorical syllogism, but whose first premise is an “If… then” statement. (13)

Answer 71

Conditional syllogism

Question 72

The tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to your hypothesis and to overlook information that argues against it. (13)

Answer 72

Confirmation bias

Question 73

The probability of the conjunction of two events (such as feminist and bank teller) cannot be higher than the probability of the single constituents (feminist alone or bank teller alone). (13)

Answer 73

Conjunction rule

Question 74

Searching among distractors for a target that involves t or more features, such as “horizontal” and “green”. (4)

Answer 74

Conjunction search

Question 75

In connectionist models, a connection weight determines the degree to which signals sent from one unit either increase or decrease the activity of the next unit. (9)

Answer 75

Connection weight

Question 76

A network model of mental operation that proposes that concepts are represented in networks that are modeled after neural networks. This approach to describing the mental representation of concepts is also called the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach. See also Connectionist network. (9)

Answer 76

Connectionism

Question 77

The type of network proposed by the connectionist approach to the representation of concepts. Connectionist networks are based on neural networks but are not necessarily identical to them. One of the key properties of a connectionist network is that a specific category is represented by activity that is distributed over many units in the network. This contrasts with semantic networks, in which specific categories are represented at individual nodes. (9)

Answer 77

Connectionist network

Question 78

The process that transforms new memories into a state in which they are more resistant to disruption. See also standard model of consolidation. (7)

Answer 78

Consolidation

Question 79

The idea that what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as expectations, other knowledge, and other life experiences. (8)

Answer 79

Constructive nature of memory

Question 80

In Atkinson and Shiffrin’s modal model of memory, active processes that can be controlled by the person and that may differ from one task to another. Rehearsal is an example of a control process. (5)

Answer 80

Control processes

Question 81

The frequency with which specific words are used and the frequency of different meanings and grammatical constructions in a particular language. (11)

Answer 81

Corpus

Question 82

Occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes, commonly referred to as seeing something “out of the corner of one’s eye.” Contrasts with overt attention. (4)

Answer 82

Covert attention

Question 83

A technique developed by Finke to train people to think creatively. (12)

Answer 83

Creative cognition

Question 84

Animals tend to share many properties, such as eyes, legs, and the ability to move. This is relevant to the multiple-factor approach to the representation of concepts in the brain. (9)

Answer 84

Crowding

Question 85

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others. This has been associated ith errors in source monitoring. (8)

Answer 85

Crytoamnesia

Question 86

A procedure for testing memory in which a participant is presented with as words or phrases, to aid recall of previously experienced stimuli. See also Free recall. (7)

Answer 86

Cued recall

Question 87

Life events that commonly occur in a particular culture. (8)

Answer 87

Cultural life script

Question 88

The idea that events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture. This has been cited to explain the reminiscence bump. (8)

Answer 88

Cultural life script hypothesis

Question 89

Process by which information is lost from memory due to the passage of time. (5)

Answer 89

Decay

Question 90

Making choices between alternatives. (13)

Answer 90

Decisions

Question 91

Reasoning that involves syllogisms in which a conclusion logically follows from premises. See also Inductive reasoning. (13)

Answer 91

Deductive reasoning

Question 92

Processing that involves attention to meaning and relating an item to something else. Deep processing is usually associated with elaborative rehearsal. See also Depth of processing; Shallow processing. (7)

Answer 92

Deep processing

Question 93

The idea that we can decide whether something is a member of a category by determining whether the object meets the definition of the category. See also Family resemblance. (9)

Answer 93

Definitional approach to categorization

Question 94

Procedure used in Sperling’s experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report only some of the stimuli in a briefly presented display. A cue tone that was delayed for a fraction of a second after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report. See also Partial report method: Whole report method. (5)

Answer 94

Delayed partial report method

Question 95

A task in which information is provided, a delay is imposed, and then memory is tested. This task has been used to study short-term memory by testing monkeys’ ability to hold information about the location of a food reward during a delay. (5)

Answer 95

Delayed response task

Question 96

Structures that branch out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons. (2)

Answer 96

Dendrites

Question 97

Corresponds to spatial representation. So called because a spatial representation can be depicted by a picture. (10)

Answer 97

Depictive representation

Question 98

The idea that the processing that occurs as an item is being encoded into memory can be deep or shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal. See also Levels of processing theory. (7)

Answer 98

Depth of processing

Question 99

The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear. (4)

Answer 99

Dichotic listening

Question 100

A component of Treisman’s attenuation model of attention. This processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words. The dictionary unit helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unattended message. See also Attenuation model of attention. (4)

Answer 100

Dictionary unit

Question 101

Neural pathway, extending from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe, t is associated with neural processing that occurs when people take action. Corresponds to the where pathway. (3)

Answer 101

Action pathway