Exam #3: Chapters 8-10 Study Guide; PSY 207

Intrusion errors

Memory errors where information not originally part of an event is mistakenly recalled as being part of it.

DRM paradigm

A commonly used experimental design for eliciting and studying memory errors, involving related words that omit the theme word.

Schema

Knowledge describing what is typical or frequent in a particular situation.

Misinformation Effect

An effect where reports about an earlier event are influenced by misleading information received after the event.

Retention Interval

The amount of time passing between the initial learning of material and memory retrieval.

Decay Theory of Forgetting

The hypothesis that memories may fade or erode with the passage of time.

Interference Theory

The idea that forgetting occurs because similar memories interfere with each other.

Retrieval Failure

Occurs when a memory is in long-term storage but cannot be located during retrieval.

TOT Phenomenon

An effect where people cannot remember a particular word but feel it is on the 'tip of their tongue'.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory that records episodes and events in a person's life.

Consolidation

The biological process through which new memories acquire some degree of permanence.

Flashbulb Memories

Memories of extraordinary clarity for highly emotional events retained over many years, but sometimes inaccurate.

Exemplar

A specific example stored in memory to represent a category based on past experiences.

Prototype

The single best example, or average, identifying the center of a category.

Family resemblance

The idea that members of a category resemble one another through shared features.

Typicality

The degree to which a particular case is typical for its kind.

Graded membership

The concept that some members of a category are 'better' members than others.

Collins and Quillian Hierarchy Model

A semantic memory model organizing concepts in a hierarchical network.

Propositional Networks

Mental representations of information in which ideas are connected in nodes and links.

Parallel Distributed Processing Model

A system of information handling where many steps occur simultaneously.

Sentence Verification Task

A method to study semantic memory by deciding if a sentence is true or false.

Production Task

An experimental procedure asking participants to name as many examples as possible.

Rating Task

A task where participants evaluate items based on certain dimensions.

Basic-Level Categorization

Hypothesized as the 'natural' and most informative level of categorization.

Exemplar-Based Reasoning

Reasoning that relies on knowledge of specific category members instead of general information.

Anomia

A disorder in which a person loses the ability to name certain objects.

Hub and Spoke Model

A proposal for concept representation in the brain integrating information from various areas.

Propositions

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

Connectionist Networks

Proposed knowledge representation systems relying on distributed representations.

What language is

A structured system of symbols and rules used for communication.

Phoneme

A unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another.

Morpheme

The smallest language unit that carries meaning.

Syntax

Rules governing the combinations of words in phrases and sentences.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language.

Pragmatics

The study of how context influences language interpretation.

Descriptive Rules

Rules that describe patterns without suggesting correctness.

Prescriptive Rules

Rules describing how language should be used.

Coarticulation

A trait of speech production where sounds are influenced by surrounding sounds.

Categorical Perception

The pattern where speech sounds are heard as members of a category.

Phonemic Restoration

A phenomenon where missing phonemes are perceived based on context.

Parsing

The process of dividing speech into its constituent elements.

Garden Path Sentences

Sentences that initially mislead the reader but require reevaluation for full understanding.

Extralinguistic Context

The social and physical setting guiding the interpretation of language.

Prosody

The pattern of pauses and pitch changes in speech.

Broca’s Area

A brain area that causes nonfluent aphasia when damaged.

Nonfluent Aphasia

A disruption of language fluency due to brain damage.

Wernicke’s Area

A brain area that causes fluent aphasia when damaged.

Fluent Aphasia

A disruption where individuals produce meaningless speech yet cannot understand it.

Specific Language Impairment

A disorder where individuals with normal intelligence struggle with language rules.

Overregularization Error

An error in language use where rules are incorrectly applied to an exception.

Linguistic Relativity

The proposal that language influences thought.

Sentence

A sequence of words that conforms to syntax rules.

Voicing

A property distinguishing speech sounds based on vocal fold vibration.

Manner of Production

How airflow is momentarily obstructed to produce speech sounds.

Place of Articulation

The position at which airflow is obstructed to create a speech sound.

Speech Segmentation

The process of dividing continuous speech into words and phonemes.

Generativity

The ability to create new and complex linguistic expressions from basic units.

Phrase-Structure Rules

Grammatical rules dictating how words and phrases form valid sentences.

Tree Structure

A depiction used to indicate hierarchical relationships among words.

Pragmatic Rules

Principles describing how language is ordinarily used.

Common Ground

Shared beliefs and assumptions between conversational partners.