Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
Encoding
Getting information to your brain.
Storage
Retaining information in your brain.
Retrieval
Getting the information back out of your brain.
Parallel processing
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously.
Connectionism
Views memories as products of interconnected neural networks. Specific memories arise from specific activation patterns.
Sensory memory
Very brief recording of sensory information.
Short-term memory
Holds things briefly, such as a phone number before dialing. Info is either stored or forgotten.
Long-term memory
Relatively permanent and limitless. Storehouse of skills, knowledge, and experiences.
Working memory
Proposed by Alan Baddeley. Never understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming information retrieved from long term-memory. IE: linking information youāre reading to previously stored information.
Allanson and Shiffrinās model
Sensory memory ā short-term memory ā long-term memory.
Explicit memories
Memories of facts and experiences that you can consciously āknowā and declare. IE: the capital of New York.
Effortful processing
How we encode explicit memories. Requires attention and conscious effort.
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information and of well-learned information such as word meanings. Produces implicit memories.
Implicit memories
Memories we are unable to consciously āknowā or declare.
Procedural memories
Memories of automatic skills and classically conditioned associations. Space, time, frequency, etc.
Iconic memory
Momentary visual memory of a visual stimuli.
Echoic memory
Momentary sensory memory of a auditory stimulus.
Chunking
Effortful processing strategy where you organize items into familiar, manageable units.
Mnemonic
Effortful processing strategy that involves memory aids that use vivid imagery and organization.
Hiearchies
Effortful processing strategy of organizing information into categories and sub-categories.
Spacing effect
Tendency for distributed practice to yield better long-term retention than cramming.
Testing effect
Enhanced memory after retrieving information, rather than simply rereading information.
Shallow processing
Encoding on a basic level based on structure or appearance of words.
Deep processing
Encoding of words semantically.
Frontal lobes and hippocampus
Networks that process and store explicit memories.
Cerebellum
Plays a large role in forming and storing implicit memories created by classical conditioning.
Basal ganglia
Deep brain structures involved in movement, facilitate formation of procedural memories.
Flashbulb memory
Clear memory of an emotionally significant event.
LTP/Long-term pollination
Increase of a cellās firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Neural basis of learning and memory.
Recall
Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness. Fill in the blank test.
Recognition
Identifying items previously learned. Multiple choice tests.
Relearning
Learning something more quickly when you learn it for the second time. We remember more than we can recall.
Priming
Associations we form when we encode a memory. Activation of particular associations in memory.
Context dependent memory
Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced the memory to encourage its retrieval.
Mood congruent memory
Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with oneās current good or bad mood.
Serial position effect
Our tendency to recall best the first and last names on a list.
Anterograde amnesia
The inability to form new memories.
Retrograde amnesia
The inability to retrieve information from oneās past (usually before a head injury).
Encoding failure
What we fail to encode, we will never be able to remember. Affected by age.
Storage decay
Gradual fading of physical memory trace.
Retrieval failure
Inability to retrieve information that is stored. EX: ātip of the tongueā.
Proactive interference
Past learning affecting current learning.
Retroactive interference
New learning affecting past learning.
Positive transfer
Previously learned information facilitating our learning of new information.
Misinformation effect
Incorporating misleading information into oneās memory of events.
Source amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we experienced, heard about, or imagined.
Cognition
All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Concept
Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or issues. Gives us a lot of information with little cognitive effort.
Prototypes
A mental image or best example of a category or concept. Quick and easy method of sorting into categories.
Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
Convergent thinking
Narrows available problem solutions to determine a single best solution. EX: math test.
Divergent thinking
Expands number of solutions. Creative thinking that diverges in different directions. EX: how many uses for a brick?
Components of creativity
Expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturous personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment.
Algorithim
Methodical, logical rule or procedure that gurantees solving a particular problem. EX: trying every key on your key ring to open a door.
Heuristic
Simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently. EX: dog food will be in pet aisle of a grocery store youāve never been to.
Insight
Sudden realization of a problemās solution.
Mental set
Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way that has been successful in the past.
Intuition
Effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought.
Representative heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things based on how well they match the prototype in our head. Basically, stereotyping.
Availability heuristic
Estimating likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.
Belief perserverence
Clinging to oneās initial conceptions after they have been proven wrong.
Framing
The way an issue is posedā can significantly impact decisions and judgments.
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
Phonemes
Smallest distinctive sound units in a language. EX: b-a-t, ch-a-t.
Morphemes
Smallest unit that carries meaning. Prefixes and suffixes. EX: pre-view, adapt-ed.
Grammar
Rules that allow us to communicate. Semantics = meaning, syntax = order of words.
Receptive language
Ability to understand what is said to and about an infant.
Productive language
Ability to produce words of an infant.
Babbling stage
Beginning at about 4 months, stage of speech development where the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to household language.
One word stage
Stage in speech development, from 1 to 2, where a child speaks mostly in one word.
Two word stage
Beginning at about age 2, child speaks mostly in 2 word sentences. EX: āwant juiceā ā telegraphic speech.
Aphasia
Impairment of language. Usually caused by left-hemisphere damage to Broca or Wernickeās area.
Brocaās area
Langauge expression. Left hemisphere.
Wernickeās area
Langauge comprehension. Left temporal lobe.
7 plus 2 minus 2
The capacity of short-term memory. Proposed by George Miller.
The method of Loci
strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information
Lateral inhibition
Phenomenon in which a neuronās response to a stimulus is inhibited by the excitation of a neighboring neuron.
Predictable world bias
The inclination to perceive order and/or reason when there is none/no evidence.
Consolidation
The process of short-term memories forming long-term memories.