Memory Flashcards
Acquisition
The process of taking on a new behaviour, demonstrated by a consistent increase in responsiveness as a result of learning.
Acronym
A method of chunking information for retention by creating a pronounceable word using the first letters of each word in a tittle or procedure.
Acrostic
A mnemonic device where the first letter in every word represents the first letter of the word you want to remember
Alzheimer’s Disease
A progressive and fatal neurodegenerative brain disease in which amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles disrupt neural functions. Causing cell death and atrophy of the brain.
Amygdala
An almond-shaped brain structure located within each temporal lobe in front of the hippocampus. Associates emotional information with explicit memories.
Antecedent
An event or stimulus that precedes a particular behaviour/response, indicating the likely consequence for the response and therefore influencing whether the response will re-occur.
Aphantasia
A condition in which people suffer reduced or absent voluntary mental imagery.
Association
The process of forming a connection between two or more stimuli, which can be developed through learning/conditioning.
Attention
The active concentration of mental activity that involves narrowing the focus of awareness onto specific stimulus of interest or relevance whilst ignoring other stimulus. Within the formation of memory, this process determines which information will be processed further within short-term memory. In observational memory a learner must be able to watch a model closely to be able to remember their behaviour.
Aversion therapy
A form of behaviour therapy applying classical conditioning principles, whereby an individual learns to associate an undesirable behaviour pattern with an unpleasant response.
Avoidance conditioning
A form of operant conditioning that occurs when an individual responds according to negative reinforcement in order to learn, evade or prevent an unpleasant event.
Basal ganglia
A group of brain structures located at the base of the forebrain and in the midbrain that play important roles in controlling voluntary movement.
Behaviour
The responses of an individual to externally or internally generated stimuli, both voluntary and involuentary.
Cerebellum
The structure within the hindbrain, associated with balance, movement, formation, storage and retrieval of implicit memory. +Fine motor skills.
Cerebral cortex
Layers of grey matter that cover the outside of the cerebral hem spheres. Associated with higher cognitive functions, thought, perception, language, sensory-motor processing.
Chunking
An encoding mechanism that increases the capacity of short term memory by grouping multiple bits of information into smaller numbers.
Classical conditioning
A type of learning in which an unconditioned stimulus that naturally evokes an unconditioned response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus. After conditioning the once neutral stimulus alone will elicit the conditioned response that it formally did not produce.
Conditioned emotional response
A reaction that occurs when the autonomic nervous system responds to an emotionally provocative stimulus that did not previously elicit that response.
Conditioned response (CR)
A reflex response to a conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus that would usually cause it.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
A previously neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to cause a reflex response through its association with an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioning
A term used to describe the process of learning when behaviours, events and stimuli become associated with each other.
Consequence
In the 3 phase mode of operant conditioning, the feedback a learner receives from the environment as an outcome of voluntary behaviour, can be reinforcing or punishing.
Contiguity
Occurs in conditioning and refers to the association of two seemingly unrelated events when they occur close together in time and space.
Country
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concept of place as a system of interrelated living entities, including the learner, their family, communication with land sea and sky, climate, animals and plants.
Declarative memory
A subtype of long-term memory concerned with specific facts or events that can be brought to mind consciously. Further divided into 2 categories : 1, semantic and episodic memory.
Discriminative stimulus
The stimulus that precedes a particular response, indicating the likely consequence for the response and therefore whether the response will occur,
Echoic memory
(Auditory memory) A term used to describe sound sensory memory traces. Duration = 3-4s, very large capacity.
Elaborative rehearsal
The association of new information with information that has already been stored in long-term memory.
Encoding
The processing of information in short term memory o transfer it to long term memory.
Episodic memory
The component of explicit memory used for storing and retrieving memories of personally experienced events and for imagining ourselves experiencing future events. Mental time travel.
Explicit memory
The kind of long term memory we use when consciously remembering information about facts or events.
Extinction
The process of extinguishing (unlearning) a conditioned fear response through repeated presentation of the stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.
