Lecture Notes on Attention and Memory Acquisition

These flashcards cover key concepts related to attention, memory acquisition, and cognitive processes based on the lecture notes.

Selective Attention

The process of focusing on certain stimuli while ignoring others.

Dichotic Listening Task

A task used to understand selective attention where participants listen to different messages in each ear.

Attended Channel

The channel that a participant focuses on during a dichotic listening task.

Unattended Channel

The channel in a dichotic listening task that is ignored by participants.

Cocktail Party Effect

The tendency to recognize one's name when it is mentioned in a crowded setting, indicating heightened awareness.

Ignoring

An active process of not paying attention to certain stimuli.

Priming

The process that raises the activation level of certain stimuli, making them easier to recognize.

Expectation Priming

The effect of prior trials influencing future trials based on learned associations.

Automaticity

A state where tasks become less resource-intensive due to extensive practice and familiarity.

Channel Segregation

The ability to separate multiple input and output streams for different tasks.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The process of cycling information through short-term memory to keep it active.

Elaborative Processing

The process of connecting new information to existing memories at varying levels of depth.

Serial Position Curve

A graphical representation showing that items at the beginning and end of a list are remembered better than those in the middle.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to recall the first items in a list more effectively.

Recency Effect

The tendency to recall the most recently presented items in a list more effectively.

Chunking

The organization of information into manageable units or groups to enhance memory retention.

Reconstruction

The cognitive process of recalling information that may have been altered or shaped by prior knowledge or schemas.