Key Concepts in Memory and Attention Theories

Family resemblance

Family resemblance

The core features that category members share; a given member of the category may have some but not necessarily all of these features.

Prototype theory

A theory in which concepts are formed around average or typical values.

Graded membership

The idea that some members of a category are 'better' members and therefore are more firmly in the category than other members.

Sentence verification task

A task in which subjects must respond true or false to simple sentences. Used to show the concept of graded membership.

Production task

A task in which subjects are asked to list as many, for example, birds or dogs as they can. Shows graded membership as they name the obvious ones first.

Rating tasks

A task in which research participants must evaluate some item with reference to the prototype.

Basic level categorization

A level of categorization hypothesized as the 'natural' and most informative level, neither too specific nor too general.

Exemplar based reasoning

Reasoning that draws on knowledge about specific category members, rather than drawing on more-general information about the overall category (the prototype).

Typicality

The degree to which a particular object or situation or event is typical for its kind.

Anomia

A pattern in which people lose the ability to name certain objects in certain categories. Shows that different brain areas process different categories.

Propositions

The smallest units of knowledge that can be either true or false.

Local representations

Concept that each node represents one idea, so that when that node is activated, you're thinking about that idea, and when you're thinking about that idea, that node is activated.

Connectionist networks

An approach to theorizing about the mind that relies on distributed representations, in which each idea is represented by a pattern of activation across the network.

Distributed representations

The concept that each idea is represented by a pattern of activation across the network (goes against local representations).

Parallel distributed processing (connectionist network)

Object recognition processing in which various elements of the object are thought to be simultaneously analyzed. This occurs in connectionist models.

Connection weights

The strength of the individual connections among nodes.

Appearance, functionality, situation

Name the 3 ways things are categorized.

Attribute model

Model that characterizes concepts by a list of features necessary to determine if an object is in that category.

Typicality effect

The effect shown in the sentence verification task that prototypical items tend to be verified faster.

Context dependent learning

Superior retrieval of memories when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context (the psychological context matters more than the physical context).

Context reinstatement

The process of recreating the thoughts and feelings of the learning environment even when the recall location is much different.

Encoding specificity

Phenomenon of remembering something better when the conditions under which we retrieve information are similar to the conditions under which we encoded it.

Nodes

Representations of ideas in the 'memory network'.

Associations (associative links)

Connections between nodes.

Activation level

A measure of the current status for a node or detector. This increased if the node receives the appropriate input from its associated nodes.

Response threshold

The activation level that has to be exceeded in order to make the node fire.

Subthreshold activation

Activation levels below the response threshold. 2 subthreshold inputs may add together, in a process of summation.

Summation

The process of accumulating 2 subthreshold inputs to create a response.

Spreading activation

The process through which activity in one node in a network flows outward to other nodes through associative links. No particular order.

Lexical decision task

Task in which participants are shown a series of letter sequences - some show words and others don't. Participants hit 'yes' if sequence spells a word. A measure of how quickly one can locate words in their memories.

Semantic priming

A process in which activation of an idea in memory causes activation to spread to other ideas related to the first in meaning. Speeds up lexical decision responses.

Source memory

Recall of when, where, and how information was acquired. Type of recall.

Remember/know distinction

A distinction between two experiences a person can have in recalling a past event. If you 'remember' having encountered a stimulus before, then you usually can offer information about that encounter, including when, where, and how it occurred. If you merely 'know' that you encountered a stimulus before, then you are likely to have a sense of familiarity with the stimulus but may have no idea when or where the stimulus was last encountered.

Capgras syndrome

Syndrome in which patients have source memory but no familiarity.

Hippocampus (as it develops connections)

Which part of the brain is associated with source memory and 'remember'?

Anterior parahippocampus (rhinal cortex)

Which part of the brain is associated with familiarity and 'know'?

True

True or false? Familiarity and source memory can be distinguished during learning.

Memory without awareness

The idea of implicit memory - when people are directly tested on their memory, they don't know. When they are tested indirectly, they show that they do remember.

Word stem completion

A task in which research participants are given the beginning of a word and complete it (shows that primed words are more likely to show up).

Illusion of truth

An effect of implicit memory in which claims that are familiar end up seeming more plausible.

Source confusion

A memory distortion that occurs when the true source of the memory is forgotten.

Processing pathway

The sequence of detectors and connections between them that the activation flows through in recognizing a specific stimulus.

Processing fluency

The speed and ease with which a pathway will carry activation.

Episodic memory

Explicit memory type - memory for specific events.

Semantic memory

Explicit memory type - general knowledge, not tied to any time or place.

Procedural memory

Implicit memory type - knowing how to do something.

Priming

Implicit memory type - changes in perception and belief caused by previous experience.

Perceptual learning

Implicit memory type - recalibration of perceptual systems as a result of experience.

Classical conditioning

Implicit memory type - learning about associations among stimuli.

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one's past - usually result of head injuries.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories.

Korsakoff's syndrome

An alcohol related disorder marked by extreme confusion, memory impairment, and other neurological symptoms. Involves anterograde amnesia.

Unilateral neglect syndrome

Result of damage to the parietal lobe - patients ignore all inputs coming from one side of the body (typically right damage, so neglect is for left space).

Selective attention

The skill through which a person focuses on one input or task while ignoring other stimuli that are also on the scene.

Dichotic listening

The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear - participants are instructed to pay attention to the one ear - the attended channel, and ignore the message from the other ear, the unattended channel.

Shadowing

Technique where a participant is asked to repeat a word or phrase immediately after its heard. Used in dichotic listening to ensure participants are paying attention.

Inattentional blindness

A pattern in which people fail to see a prominent stimulus, even though they're staring straight at it.

Change blindness

Observers' inability to detect changes in scenes they're looking directly at.

Early selection hypothesis

Hypothesis that the attended input is privileged from the start, so that the unattended input receives little analysis and therefore is never perceived.

Late selection hypothesis

A hypothesis, which states that all inputs receive relatively the same amount of analysis but that selection takes place afterwards in the form that some information may not reach consciousness.

Repetition priming

Priming produced by a prior encounter, recently or frequently, with the stimulus.

Expectation based priming

Priming involving anticipation and therefore effort. Unlike repetition priming, it is not free - priming one detector will inhibit the ability to notice other detectors.

Limited capacity system

A group of processes in which resources are limited so that extra resources supplied to one process must be balanced by a withdrawal of resources somewhere else.

Mental resources

Some process or capacity needed for performance.

Spatial attention

The mechanism through which a person allocates processing resources to particular positions in space.

Control system for attention

Made up of the orienting system, the alerting system, and the executive system. Process for shifting attention.

Orienting system

System in the control system that disengages attention from one target, shifts it to another target, and engages attention on that target.

Alerting system

System in the control system that is responsible for maintaining an alert state in the brain.

Executive system

System in the control system that controls voluntary actions.

Ultra rare item effect

An effect in which rare items are often overlooked.

Endogenous control of attention

A pattern in which one chooses what to pay attention to.

Exogenous control of attention

A pattern in which one's attention is 'seized' by something involuntarily.

Dorsal attention system

Which brain circuit (near the top of the head) is concerned with spatial attention?

Ventral attention system

Which brain circuit is concerned with non-spatial attention (aka object attention)?

Executive control

The mechanisms that allow one to control own thoughts, helps keep current goals in mind so that they will guide your actions.

Preservation error

A tendency to produce the same response over and over even when it's plain that the task requires a change in the response.

Goal neglect

Failing to organize behaviour in a way that moves toward goals.

Automaticity

Term used to describe tasks that are well practiced and involve little to no control.

Stroop interference

A classic demonstration of automaticity in which participants are shown words in colour and are asked to say just the colour.

Acquisition

The process of gaining information and placing it into memory.

Storage

The process of retaining encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of raw sensory information in the memory system.

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Modal Model of Memory

A theoretical approach to the study of memory that emphasizes the existence of different memory stores.

Free recall

A procedure for testing memory in which the participant is asked to remember stimuli that were previously presented.

Primary effect

Tendency to recall the first items in a sequence more readily than the middle items.

Recency effect

Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well.

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list.

Memory rehearsal

Any mental activity that has the effect of maintaining information in working memory.

Digit span test

Memory test in which a series of numbers is read to subjects in the experiment who are then asked to recall the numbers in order.

7 plus or minus 2

A number often offered as an estimate of the holding capacity of working memory.

Chunks

A cluster of items that has been stored as a unit in long-term memory.

Operation span

A measure of working memory's capacity.

Working memory capacity

The amount of information that can be kept active in working memory.

Working memory system

Executive control processes that govern the selection and sequence of thoughts.