(cognitive process) Divided Attention & Intro to Short-term memory (9/30)

These flashcards cover key concepts from cognitive psychology focusing on attention, memory processes, and the psychological refractory period.

Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)

The delay in response to a second task due to the processing of a first task. It varies with the timing between tasks.

Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA)

The time difference between the onset of two tasks in a dual-task scenario.

Central Bottle Neck Model

A theory that suggests a limit in processing capacity, particularly in decision-making during multitasking.

Automatic Processing

Mental operations that require little conscious thought, allowing for faster and more efficient task performance.

Controlled Processing

Deliberate and conscious mental activities that require significant attentional resources.

Consistent vs. Varied Mapping

A distinction in task design where consistent mapping maintains the same target, while varied mapping changes targets and distractors, affecting performance.

Workload Management

The process of organizing and prioritizing tasks to effectively use cognitive resources.

Hemi-Neglect

A neurological condition where a patient ignores one side of their visual field due to brain damage.

Word Frequency Effect

A phenomenon where high frequency words are recognized faster than low frequency words in language processing.

Lexical Access

The process of retrieving a word's meaning from memory during language comprehension.

Chunking

A method of organizing information into manageable units to enhance memory retention and recall.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A model of memory that includes sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory as separate structures.

Working Memory

A system for temporarily holding and manipulating information in mind, crucial for reasoning and comprehension.

Rehearsal

The cognitive process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about information to facilitate memorization.

Contextual Markers

Significant cues that help with memory retrieval by providing associations with stored information.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive neurodegenerative disorder primarily characterized by memory loss and cognitive decline, often linked to retrieval issues rather than storage.

Response Selection

The cognitive process of deciding which action to take in response to a stimulus.

Dual Task Experiment

A research method used to study attention where participants perform two tasks simultaneously to evaluate their ability to focus.

Attention Capacity

The limited amount of information an individual can focus on and process at any given time.

Mental Lexicon

The mental dictionary that contains information about words, including their meanings, pronunciation, and associations.

Decoding

The process of interpreting or understanding received information, often in the context of language and memory.