Cognition Exam 2 Textbook Only

What is the embedded-process view of immediate memory?

Short-term accessible information is activated long-term memory, with a narrower focus of attention.

What is a unitary view of memory?

An approach arguing against completely distinct short- and long-term stores.

Why are immediate-memory models not interchangeable?

They differ in whether storage systems are separate, how attention works, and what explains capacity and forgetting.

What is the role of executive attention in goal-directed behavior?

Maintaining task goals, resisting distractions, and switching or updating priorities.

What are action slips?

Everyday mistakes when habitual actions occur despite an intended different action.

Why can thought suppression backfire?

Monitoring for the unwanted thought keeps it accessible even while one attempts to suppress it.

How can stress affect executive control?

Stress can divert limited attention and impair demanding working-memory tasks.

Why does coding format matter for immediate memory?

The sound, visual, or semantic representation used influences which errors and interference occur.

What is fitness-relevant or survival processing?

Processing material for imagined survival usefulness, which can improve later retention in studied tasks.

What is organizational encoding?

Arranging material into categories or relations so retrieval has meaningful structure.

What is distinctiveness in encoding?

Unusual or differentiating features make an item stand out from competitors.

What is the enactment effect?

Performing an action while learning can improve memory for that action.

How can attention at encoding affect later explicit recall?

Material not attended to sufficiently may never be encoded in a retrievable form.

Why is repetition alone not a guarantee of durable memory?

Repetition without elaboration, spacing, or retrieval may leave weak retrieval routes.

What is the encoding–retrieval interaction?

The effectiveness of encoding depends partly on the cues and processes used later to retrieve.

What is an accessibility failure?

Stored knowledge cannot currently be brought to mind despite still being available.

Why do environmental retrieval cues sometimes help?

A shared context can reactivate associations formed during encoding.

How can aging influence retrieval?

Retrieval can become less efficient, particularly for effortful recall, even if knowledge remains available.

What is ecological validity in memory research?

How well a study's task and conclusions represent remembering in ordinary life.

What was Neisser's challenge to laboratory memory research?

Researchers should investigate meaningful everyday remembering, not only artificial word lists.

What are diary methods in autobiographical research?

Recording life events as they happen and later testing their recall.

Why are retrospective autobiographical reports hard to validate?

Researchers often lack independent evidence of the original events and details.

What is the autobiographical memory function?

A lifespan pattern combining childhood amnesia, a reminiscence bump, and better recall of recent years.

How do language and self-concept relate to childhood amnesia?

Developing narrative language and a stable self help encode and retrieve personally organized episodes.

What are proposed explanations for the reminiscence bump?

Distinctive transitions, identity formation, and strong cognitive functioning in early adulthood.

How can repeated retelling change autobiographical memories?

Retelling may strengthen the general story while changing or losing exact details.

What is a hierarchical account of autobiographical retrieval?

Searching from broad life periods and general events toward specific episodic details.

What is generative retrieval?

Deliberate, goal-guided searching through autobiographical knowledge.

What is direct autobiographical retrieval?

A specific cue triggers a personal memory relatively automatically.

Why is source monitoring important in false memories?

People must distinguish experienced events from imagined, suggested, or inferred content.

What is the imagination-inflation effect?

Imagining an event can increase later belief that it occurred.

What is a false autobiographical-memory implantation procedure?

Suggesting a plausible but fictitious personal event and assessing whether a participant develops recollection or belief.

Why are confidence and eyewitness accuracy not identical?

Confidence can be influenced by feedback, repetition, and procedures after the event.

What is a key limitation of eyewitness-memory experiments?

Laboratory events and stakes may differ from real crimes, requiring careful generalization.

What is the recovered-memory controversy?

Debate over delayed recall of trauma, possible forgetting, suggestive retrieval methods, and false-memory risk.

Does lack of continuous recall prove a traumatic event never occurred?

No; memory gaps alone do not determine whether an event happened.

Does a vivid recovered memory prove an event happened?

No; vividness alone does not establish historical accuracy.

Why should hypnosis or leading interviews not be treated as truth tests?

They can increase confidence or produce suggestion-related distortions without verifying accuracy.

Why can forgetting be adaptive?

Reducing outdated or irrelevant detail can help prioritize useful information.

Why is reconstructive memory both useful and risky?

It supports inference and meaningful understanding but can insert details not experienced.