Cognitive Psychology Ch.7

context-dependent learning

a pattern of data in which materials learned in one setting are well remembered when the person returns to that setting, but are less well remembered in other settings

context-reinstatement

a procedure in which a person is led to the same mental and emotional state they were in during a previous event; context reinstatement can often promote accurate recollection of that event

encoding specificty

the tendency when memorizing to place in memory both the materials to be learned and some amount of their context

nodes

an individual unit within an associate network. in a scheme using local representations, nodes represent single ideas or concepts. in a scheme using distributed representations, ideas or concepts are represented by a pattern of activation across a wide number of nodes; the same nodes may also participate in other patterns and therefore in other representations

associations or associative links

functional connections that are hypothesized to link nodes within a mental network or detectors within a detector network; these associations are oftenhypothesized as the “carriers” of activation from one node or detector to the next

subthreshold activation

activation levels below response threshold. subthreshold activation, by definition, will not trigger a response; nonetheless, this activation is important because it can accumulate, leading eventually to an activation level that reaches (or exceeds) the response threshold

summation

the addition of two or more separate inputs so that the effect of the combined inputs is greater than the effect of any one input by itself

spreading activation

a process through which activation travels from one node to another, via associative links. As each node becomes activated, it serves as a source for further activation, spreading onward through the network

lexical-decision task

a test in which participants are shown strings of letters and must indicate, as quickly as possible, whether or not each string of letters is a word in their language. it is proposed that people perform this task by “looking up” these strings in their “mental dictionary.”

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 

recall

the task of memory retreival in which the rememberer must come up with the desired materials, sometimes in response to a cue that names the context in which these materials were earlier encountered, and sometimes in response to a cue that broadly identifies that sought-after information

recognition 

the task of memory retrieval in which the items to be remembered are presented and the person must decide whether or not the item was encountered in some earlier circumstance

familiarity

in some circumstances, the subjective feeling that one has encountered a stimulus before; in other circumstances, the objective fact that one has indeed encountered a stimulus before and is now in some way influenced by that encounter, whether or not one recalls that encounter or feels the stimulus is familiar 

source memory

a form of memory that enables a person to recollect the episode in which learning took place or the time and place in which a particular stimulus was encountered 

attribution

the step of explaining a feeling or event, usually by identifying the factors (or an earlier event) that are the cause of the current feeling or event. this term is often elaborated with the more specific term “casual attribution”

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 occured. if you merely “know” that you encountered a stimulus before, then you’re likely to have a sense of familiarity with the stimulus but may have no idea when or where it was last enountered

word-stem completion

a task in which research participants are given the beginning of a word andmust procide a word that starts with the letters provided. in some versions of the task, only one solution is possible, so performance is measured by counting the number of words completely. in other versions of the task, several solutions are possible for each stem, and performance is assessed by determining which responses fulfill some other criterion 

explicit memories

a memory revealed by direct memory testing and usually accompanied by the conviction that one is, in fact, remembering—that is, drawing on some sort of knowledge (perhaps knowledge about a specific prior episode, or perhaps more general knowledge)

direct memory testing

a form of memory testing in which people are asked explicitly to remembersome previous event. recall and standard recognition testing are both forms of direct memory testing

implicit memories

a memory revealed by indirect memory testing and often manifested as a priming effect in which current performance in guided or facilitated by previous experiences. implicit memories are often accompanied by no conscious realization that one is, in fact, being influenced by specific past memories

indirect memory testing

a form of memory testing in which research participants are not told that their memories are being testing. instead, they’re tested in such a way that previous experiences that influence current behavior 

illusion of truth

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

source confusion

a memory error in which one misremembers where a bit of information was learned or where a particular stimulus was last encountered

processing pathway

the sequence of nodes and connections between nodes through which activation flows when recognizing or thinking about a stimulus or idea

processing fluency

the speed or ease of processing involved in recognizing or thinking about a stimulus or idea; usually understood as a reflection of the speed or ease with which activation moves through a processing pathway

amnesia

a disruption of memory, often due to brain damage

retrograde amnesia

often caused by a blow to the head, an inability to remember experiences that occured before the event that triggered the memory disruption

anterograde amnesia

an inability to remember experiences that occured after the event that triggered the memory disruption

korsakoff’s syndrome

a clinical syndrome characterized primarily by dense anterograde amnesia. korsakoff’s syndrome is caused by damage to specific brain regions, and it is often precipitated by a form of malnutrition that is common among long-term alcoholics