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Psychology: Themes and Variations chapter 7 vocab

Terms in this set (53)

Encoding
Forming a memory code.
Storage
Maintaining encoded information in memory over time.
Retrieval
Recovering information from memory stores.
Attention
Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.
Levels-of-processing theory
Deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes.
Elaboration
Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding.
Dual-coding theory
Memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either lead to recall.
Self-referent encoding
Deciding how or whether information is personally relevant.
Sensory memory
Preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of second.
Short-term memory (STM)
A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds.
Rehearsal
The process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information.
Chunk
A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.
Long-term memory (LTM)
An unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time.
Flashbulb memories
Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events.
Conceptual hierarchy
A multilevel classification system based on common properties among items.
Schema
An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted fro previous experience with the object or event.
Semantic network
Nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts.
Connectionist models
Cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks.
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models
Cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks.
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
The temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by the feeling that it's just out of reach.
Misinformation effect
Participants' recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information.
Source monitoring
Making attributions about the origins of memories.
Source-monitoring error
A memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source.
Reality monitoring
The process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources (one's perceptions of actual events) or internal sources (one's thoughts and imaginations).
Nonsense syllables
Consonant-vowel-consonant arrangements that do not correspond to words.
Forgetting curve
Graphs retention and forgetting over time.
Retention
The proportion of material retained (remembered).
Recall
A measure of retention that requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any clues.
Recognition
A measure of retention that requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options.
Relearning
A measure of retention that requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having it learned it before.
Decay theory
Forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time.
Interference theory
People forget information because of competition from other material.
Retroactive interference
When new information impairs the retention of previously learned information.
Proactive interference
When previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information.
Encoding specificity principle
The value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code.
Transfer-appropriate processing
When the initial processing of information in similar to the type of processing required by subsequent measure of retention.
Repression
Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious.
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
A long-lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway.
Retrograde amnesia
The loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia.
Anterograde amnesia
The loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia.
Consolidation
A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory.
Declarative memory system
Handles factual information.
Non-declarative memory system
Houses memory for actions, skills, conditioned responses, and emotional responses.
Episodic memory system
Chronological, or temporally dated, recollections of personal experience.
Semantic memory system
General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned.
Prospective memory
Remembering to perform actions in the future.
Retrospective memory
Remembering events from the past or previously learned information.
Mnemonic devices
Strategies for enhancing memory.
Overlearning
Continued rehearsal of material after you have mastered it.
Serial-position effect
When subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than in the middle.
Link method
Forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them all together.
Method of loci
Taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations.
Hindsight bias
The tendency to mold one's interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out.
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