Cognitive Exam 2

Memory

processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.

Encoding

the process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory.

Storage

the process of maintaining encoded information in memory over time.

Retrieval

the process of accessing and bringing to consciousness previously stored information.

Recall

retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time.

Recognition

identifying items previously learned.

Relearning

learning something more quickly when you encounter it a second or later time.

Sensory memory

retention, for brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation.

Modal Model of Memory

a model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968 that describes the flow of information through memory.

Short-Term Memory

stores small amounts of information for a brief duration.

Working Memory

a system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks.

Phonological Loop

a component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage of verbal information.

Visuospatial Sketch Pad

a component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage of visual and spatial information.

Central Executive

a component of working memory that controls attention and coordinates the other components.

Episodic Buffer

a component of working memory that serves as a backup store and communicates with long-term and working memory components.

Prefrontal cortex

the part of the brain responsible for processing incoming visual and auditory information and involved in working memory.

Activity-silent working memory

a theory proposed by Stokes in 2015 that suggests information is stored in short-term changes in neural networks.

Focused Attention

Our ability to concentrate on a specific stimulus for any period of time.

Sustained Attention

The ability to maintain concentrated attention over prolonged periods of time.

Selective Attention

The process of selecting and focusing on specific stimuli while suppressing irrelevant information.

Divided Attention

The ability to pay attention to more than one stimulus at a time.

What did Schneider and Shiffrin do?

Divide attention between remembering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli

Alternating Attention

The ability to switch focus between two or more stimuli with different cognitive requirements.

Load Theory of Attention

The theory that processing capacity determines how much information a person can handle at any given moment.

Perceptual Load

The difficulty of a given task.

What do high load tasks use?

Higher amounts of processing capacity

Inattentional Blindness

The phenomenon where a stimulus that is not attended to is not perceived even if a person is looking at it

Change blindness

The phenomenon where an observer fails to notice a change in a visual stimulus.

Stroop Test

A test that measures the delay in reaction time between congruent and incongruent stimuli.

Dichotic Listening

The process of attending to one auditory input while ignoring others.

Broadbent's Filter Model

An early selection model that filters incoming information based on physical characteristics.

Treisman's Attenuation Model

An intermediate selection model that separates attended and unattended messages early in the information-processing system.

Feature Integration Theory (FIT)

A theory that explains how attention plays a role in combining features of objects.

What did Treisman and Schmidt do?

Found the FIT model where participants combined “free floating” stimuli.

What did MacKay do?

Found that in attended ears participants heard ambiguous sentences and in the unattended ear they heard random key words.

Late selection model

A model of selective attention proposed by MacKay, suggesting that the attention filter occurs later in processing, after all information has been processed, and only selected information is consciously perceived.

When does attention filtering occur?

At ant point of the processing depending on what the information is

What can an fMRI do when used during attentional tasks?

Increase brain activities in certain areas

Covert attention

Paying attention to stimuli without moving the eyes.

Overt attention

Selectively processing information by moving the eyes to specific locations.

What are saccades?

Rapid movements of the eyes from one place to another?

What are fixations?

Short pauses on points of interest.

Stimulus salience

Areas of a stimulus that stand out and capture attention, influenced by characteristics such as color and motion.

Scene schema

Knowledge about what is typically contained in scenes, which helps guide eye movements from one area of a scene to another.

Long-Term Memory

"Archive" of information about past events and knowledge learned

What is the capacity for recent memories?

Unlimited

Recent Memories

More detailed and have a duration of approximately 30 seconds to a lifetime

Explicit Memory

Memory for specific personal experiences (episodic memory) and general knowledge/facts (semantic memory)

Implicit Memory

Memory that is unconsciously formed and influences behavior or thoughts without conscious awareness

Episodic Memory

Tied to personal experience, remembering is reliving

Semantic Memory

General knowledge and facts

Forgetting

Increases with longer intervals after encoding, not an "all-or-nothing" process

Familiarity

Semantic memory component of forgetting

Recollection

Episodic memory component of forgetting

Autobiographical Memory

Memory for specific experiences from our life, includes both episodic and semantic components

Hyperthymesia

The condition of remembering a vastly large number of previous experiences in vivid detail

Implicit Memory

Occurs when learning from experience is not accompanied by conscious remembering

Procedural Memory

Perform procedures without conscious awareness of how to do them

Priming

Phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences responses to subsequent stimuli

Repetition Priming

Improved processing when an initial stimulus, or a similar one, is repeated

Propaganda Effect

More likely to rate statements read or heard before as being true, involves implicit memory

Classical Conditioning

Process of an automatic, conditioned response paired with a specific stimulus

Processing Strategies

Chunking, mnemonics, and hierarchies to aid memory

Encoding Specificity

Matching the encoding contexts of information at recall assists in the retrieval of episodic memories

Levels of Processing Model

Memory recall depends on how information is encoded

Consolidation

Stabilizing a memory trace after its initial acquisition

Synaptic Consolidation

Rapid consolidation that occurs at synapses

Systems Consolidation

Gradual reorganization of neural circuits

Memory Consolidation and Sleep

Memory consolidation is enhanced during sleep, some memories are consolidated more than others

Flashbulb Memories

Highly emotional, vivid, and detailed memories about shocking and important events

Reminiscence Bump

Memory is high for recent events and events that occurred in adolescence and early adulthood

Retrieval

Process of transferring information from long-term memory back into working memory

Cued Recall

Retrieval with the aid of cues to improve performance

Construction of Memories

Allows us to fill in the blanks, but can lead to errors and misattributions of information.1. Serial Position:The order in which items are presented in a list or sequence.

Serial Position Curve

A graph that shows the relationship between the position of an item in a list and its likelihood of being remembered.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to remember items presented at the beginning of a list better than those presented in the middle or at the end.

Recency Effect

The tendency to remember items presented at the end of a list better than those presented in the middle or at the beginning.

Rehearsal

The process of repeating or practicing information in order to remember it better.

Long-term Memory

The part of memory that stores information for a long period of time.

Short-term Memory

The part of memory that temporarily holds information for immediate use.

Interference

The phenomenon where the recall or retrieval of information is disrupted by the presence of other information.

Coding

The process of representing information in memory.

Visual Coding

Holding an image in the mind to reproduce a visual pattern that was previously seen.