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cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
memory
the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.
concept
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
prototype
a mental image or best example of a category.
encoding
the processing of information into the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.
heuristic
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.
insight
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
representativeness heuristic
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
availability heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.
overconfidence
the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
belief perseverance
clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
semantics
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.
babbling stage
babies spontaneously uttering a variety of words, such as ah-goo
serial position effect
our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
Wernicke's area
language comprehension part of the brain
Benjamin Whorf
language; his hypothesis is that language determines the way we think
retroactive interference
the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.
repression
in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
episodic memory
Explicit memories that have a time and a place.
Deep processing
Similar to elaboratiave rehearsal; connecting semantics of a new word to LTM which builds a strong memory trace that is resistant to memory decay.
context dependent memory
The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place.
anterograde amnesia
an inability to form new memories
George Miller
Found that short term memory has the capacity of about 7 (+/- 2) items.
algorithm
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics.
storage
the retention of encoded information over time.
creativity
the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
retrieval
the process of getting information out of memory storage.
fixation
the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.
mental set
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
sensory memory
the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
functional fixedness
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.
short-term memory
activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten.
long-term memory
the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
working memory
a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.
intuition
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
framing
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
automatic processing
unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.
phoneme
in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
effortful processing
encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).
rehearsal
the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.
syntax
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.
spacing effect
the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
one-word stage
the stage in which children speak mainly in single words
two-word stage
they start uttering two word sentences; also known as telegraphic speech
linguistic determinism
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
critical period
a specific time in development when certain skills or abilities are most easily learned such as language
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
Broca's area
speech production part of the brain
semantic encoding
the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words.
Noam Chomsky
theorist who believed that humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language
imagery
mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding.
mnemonics
memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
chunking
organizing items into familiar, manageable units in STM because space is limited to 7 bits. This increasing the efficiency of STM.
iconic memory
a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
echoic memory
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.
long-term potentiation (LTP)
an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
flashbulb memory
a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
implicit memory
retention independent of conscious recollection. (Also called non-declarative or procedural memory.)
explicit memory
memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." (Also called declarative memory.)
hippocampus
a neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.
recall
a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
recognition
a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
relearning
a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.
priming
the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.
mood-congruent memory
the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.
proactive interference
the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.
misinformation effect
incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.
source amnesia/misattribution
attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
procedural memory
Implicit memories (retrieved unconsciously) which involved motor skills; for example; riding a bike, typing, and tying a shoe.
Curve of forgetting
Indicates LTM decay over time. Rapid decay occurs within the first 20 minutes and then memory decay slows down to 20-30% over 30 days.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Connecting new information with memories already stored in LTM.
Shallow Processing
Phonetic memory building which leads to a fragile memory trace that is susceptible to rapid decay. (Focusing on how to say the word).
cerebellum
Brain part that stores implicit memories.
state-dependent memory
Long-term memory retrieval is best when a person's physiological state at the time of encoding and retrieval of the information is the same.
retrograde amnesia
loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma backwards, or loss of memory for the past
Elizabeth Loftus
Her research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony
Hermann Ebbinghaus
the first person to study memory scientifically and systematically; used nonsense syllables and recorded how many times he had to study a list to remember it well
motivated forgetting
forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable
retrieval failure
the inability to recall long-term memories because of inadequate or missing retrieval cues
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
A model for describing memory in which there are three distinguishable kinds of memory (sensory, short term, long term) through which info passes in a sequential way as it is processed.
semantic memory
a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world (fact memories)
distributed practice
spacing the study of material to be remembered by including breaks between study periods
primacy effect
tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
recency effect
tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
deja vu
that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.
parallel processing
the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.
selective attention
the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input
divided attention
concentrating on more than one activity at the same time
Metacognition
awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.
prospective memory
remembering to do things in the future
Wolfgang Kohler
researcher who studied insight learning in chimps
testing effect
enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information
convergent thinking
narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
divergent thinking
a type of creative thinking in which one generates new solutions to problems