cog psych 2

Conjunction errors

Mixing up certain properties due to inattention

Attention-deficit disorder (ADHD)

Overwhelmed by stimuli & unable to attend to some and disregard others

Unilateral neglect syndrome

Inability to attend to left side of space due to right parietal lobe damage ( often stroke)

Selective attention

The skill through which one focuses on one input or task while ignoring other stimuli.

Dichotic listening tasks

Using headphones & asking participants to only attend to one channel but testing the unattended channel

Shadowing

Repeat out loud the information from the attended channel (confirms attention)

Cocktail party effect

When we notice information from the unattended channel (often of personal significance)

Inattentional blindness

failure to see a prominent stimulus, even if one is staring right at it.

change blindness

the inability to detect changes in a scene despite looking at it directly

limit of perception

the idea that participants genuinely do not perceive the stimuli

limit of memory

the idea that participants perceived the stimuli but immediately forgot it

early selection hypothesis

only the attended input is analyzed and perceived, unattended information receives little or no analysis

late selection hypothesis

all inputs are analyzed, selection occurs after analysis, only the attended input reaches consciousness

biased competition theory

the idea that neurons receive information from multiple stimuli, then has a temporary bias towards stimuli with desired properties, leaving unexpected stimuli to be left out

expectation priming (auditory)

when the perceiver tries to anticipate the attended channel, leading them to prime the detectors needed for the input.

spatial attention

focus is on a central fixation mark. selectively prioritizes information and ignores irrelevant stimuli. can be primed correctly, incorrectly, or neutrally

repetition priming

stimulus based, requires no effort or cognitive resources, (ex hearing your name in an unattended channel)

expectation driven priming (visual)

effortful and deliberate (ex. seeing the arrow and anticipating direction of stimulus)

control system for attention

alerting system, orienting system, executive system

alerting system

the system that helps maintain an alert state

orienting system

the system that allows us to disengage attention from one target and shift it to a new target

executive system

the system that controls voluntary movements

unilateral neglect syndrome

damage to the right parietal lobe which results in the inability to attend to the left side of space.

two part account

spatially defined bias in preparation for stimuli. once presented, the target object defines focus

feature-integration theory

a model of visual attention and perception that shows how the human brain combines features of an object into a unified perception

multitasking

the act of dividing available resources to perform multiple tasks or attend to multiple inputs simultaneously

task specific resources

things that require specific resources (ex. walking: motor resources. talking: language resources)

interference

when our attention becomes divided and multiple tasks are being performed simultaneously, both requiring general resources

executive control

mechanisms that allow one to control their thoughts, organize mental steps, shift plans, inhibit automatic responses, etc

prefrontal cortex

the area that is particularly important to executive control

automaticity

practiced skills require fewer resources or less frequent use of resources, they require little to no executive control

controlled processing

conscious and intentional, performed serially, relatively slow, often difficult, uses many attentional resources

automatic processing

generally unconscious, performed in parallel, relatively fast, usually easy, uses few attentional resources

stroop interference

a cognitive delay that occurs when the meaning of a word conflicts with the colour of the ink it is presented in

acquisition/encoding

physical, sensory input to mental representation

storage

information retention

retrieval

how information is accessed

modal model

sensory, short term, long term

information processing theory

the idea that mental processes are like computer operations (serial processes)

sensory memory

very brief form of memory that holds raw stimulus input information

haptic

the type of memory for touch

echoic

the type of memory for sound

iconic

the type of memory for visual stimuli

sperling’s partial report procedure

lines of individual letters, a tone afterwards cues a single line, participants must recall the letters

working memory

the new term for short term memory, includes the idea that things aren’t just “held” in our memory

central executive

keeps the goal in mind, directs attention, and retrieves info from helpers

articulatory rehearsal loop

holds onto repeated speech through subvocalization

episodic buffer

organizes chronological sequences and integrates LTM with information from other helpers

visuospatial buffer

mental images to help remember

acoustic confusions

participants frequently confused letters they saw or heard for ones that sound similar

concurrent articulation tasks

eliminated “sound alike” errors. repeating syllables (ex “tah-tah”) while completing a digit span test reduces WM capacity

chunking

a strategy used to condense information, requiring effort but reduces WM load

operation span

tasks involve needing to do something with information while holding items in memory, measures working memory capacity

exhaustive

searching through all items

self-terminating

stopping once you’ve found something that satisfies our search

sternberg search task

participants are shown a short sequence of items, there is a brief pause, and then a probe is presented and the participant must indicate whether or not the probe was present in the original memory set

serial positioning

the order or positioning of stimuli matters

primacy effect

better memory for earlier items, benefit of rehearsal

recency effect

better memory for last items, held in working memory

hippocampus

retrieval from long-term memory activates the ___

perirhinal cortex

retrieval from working memory specifically activates the ___

clive wearing

a man who suffered from encephalitis, and later from amnesia. he was unable to form new memories but retains his skills

maintenance rehearsal

the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about information to keep it temporarily in your short-term (working) memory

elaborative rehearsal

the process of applying meaning and relation to existing knowledge

intentional learning

deliberate, with the expectation that memory will be later tested

incidental learning

learning in the absence of an intention to learn

shallow encoding

when the brain focuses on surface-level, physical, or sensory features rather than meaning

deep processing

when the brain focuses on the meaning, context, and significance of information rather than just its surface features

self-reference effect

recall is better when words are related meaningfully to self, highest for words judged as descriptive but still works for non-descriptive words

self-generated cues

memory prompts, mnemonics, notes, or details that someone creates to make information easier to remember

context-dependent learning

information is easier to recall when the context during retrieval matches the context in which it was originally learned

encoding specificity

remembering both the materials to be learned and the context in which it was learned

associative links

a connection between unrelated items, stimuli and responses, or interconnected concepts in memory

activation level

the current numerical value or strength of signal carried by a neuron or node within a network

response threshold

the nodes only fire once this thing is met. It activated neighboring nodes and draws attention to the firing node

node

a single concept, memory, or word in a semantic network

subthreshold activation

a level of neural or mental activation that falls below the conscious response threshold

summation

the process by which a neuron combines multiple incoming electrical signals to decide whether to fire an action potential

semantic priming

when exposure to one stimulus speeds up or improves the identification of a subsequent stimulus because the two share a similar meaning

recall

generate info after being given a broad cue, requires memory search, depends heavily on memory connections (remember names)

recognition

information is presented, and the individual must decide if it is the sought-after information, in the absence of source memory, depends on feelings of familiarity (pick names out of a list of names)

source memory

the ability to remember the contextual origins, circumstances, or specific details of how, when, or where a piece of information or an event was learned

capgras syndrome

when a person believes a close loved one has been replaced by an imposter

implicit memory

a type of long-term memory that is used unconsciously, influencing our thoughts without deliberate effort or awareness (ex. breathing), studied through priming tests

word-stem completion tasks

asking participants to complete the word “CLA-”, priming makes certain words more likely than others

explicit memory

the conscious, intentional recollection of facts, events, and personal experiences, studied through recall or recognition tests

processing fluency

an improvement in the speed or ease of processing, comes from strengthening pathways using priming and repeated use

decay theory of forgetting

the theory that memories fade over time, shown by Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, coined by Thorndike in 1914

theory of disuse

encompasses storage strength and retrieval strength, information that isn’t used is not lost, it’s just not accessible

storage strength (ss)

how well learned something is

retrieval strength (rs)

how accessible something is

high ss and high rs

something well learned and easily recalled (ex. your home address)

high ss and low rs

something well learned but not easily recalled (ex. the lyrics to an old song you used to know)

low ss and low rs

new details from class that did not learn well and cannot recall later

low ss and high rs

new details from class that you talk over with a friend immediately after class

foresight bias (hindsight bias)

the tendency to think things about the future because of what we know in the present. (similarly “I knew it all along”)

interference

when competing information disrupts our ability to encode, store, or retrieve memories, or reduces speed and accuracy during mental tasks

retroactive interference

when new information gets in the way of old information

proactive interference

when old information gets in the way of new information

Brown-Peterson task

a trigram is shown, then participants are asked to count backwards from 3s and recall the 3 letters, counting interfered with rehearsal