chapter 9/8 cognitive psych

Prototype

A single “best example” or average, identifying the “center” of category

Typicality

The degree to which a particular case and (object situation or event) is typical for its kind

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

In experimental procedure used for studying memory in which participants are given simple sentences (ex :cats are animals) and must respond as quickly as possible whether the sentence is true or false

Production task

In experimental procedure used in studying concepts in which the participant is asked to name as many examples (ex; as many fruits) as possible

Rating task

A task in which research participants must evaluate some item or category with reference to some dimension, usually expressing their response in terms of some number. For example, they might be asked to evaluate birds for how typical, they are within the category

Basic-level categorization

A level of categorization hypothesis as the “natural” and most informative level, neither two specific nor too general

Exemplar-based reasoning

Reasoning that draws on knowledge about specific category, member, or exemplars, rather than drawing on more general information about the overall category

Anomia

A disorder, often arising from specific forms of brain damage in which the person loses the ability to name certain objects

Hub and spoke model

A proposal for how concepts might be represented in the brain with tissue in the anterior temporal lobes, serving as the “hub” a brain location that connects and integrates information from many other brain areas.The “spokes” represents more specific elements of the concept with (for example), visual information relevant to the concept, stored and visual areas; relevant action information stored in motor areas and so on

Propositions

The smallest unit of knowledge that can be either true or false. Propositions are often expressed via simple sentences, but this is merely a convenience; Other modes of representation are available.

Connectionist networks

Proposed systems of knowledge representation that rely on distributed representations, and that therefore require parallel distributive processing to operate on the elements of a representations

Parallel distributed processing (pdp)

A system of handling information in which many steps happen at once, (parallel) and in which various aspects of the problem or task are represented only in a distributed way

Intrusion error

A memory error in which a person recall elements that were not part of the original episode

DRM (deese, roediger, McDermott) paradigm

A commonly used experimental design named after its originators for a eliciting and studying memory errors

Schema

Knowledge describing what is typical or frequent in a particular situation

Misinformation effect

An effect in which reports about an earlier event are influenced by misinformation that the person received after experiencing the event

Retention interval

The amount of time that passes between the initial learning of some material and the subsequent memory retrieval of the material

Decay theory of forgetting

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

Retrieval failure

occurs when a memory is in fact in long-term storage, but the person is unable to locate that memory when trying to retrieve it

TOT phenomenon

Often observed effect in which people are unable to remember a particular word, even though they are certain the word is in their vocabulary.

Autobiographical memory

The aspect of memory that records, the episodes and events in a person‘s life

Consolidation

The biological process through which new memories are “cemented in place” acquiring some degree of permanent through the creation of new neural connections

Flashbulb memory

Extraordinary clarity typically for some highly emotional event that is retained over many years