Stage 1 Psychology: Cognitive Psychology

Flashcards covering key concepts from Stage 1 Cognitive Psychology, including memory stores, encoding types, forgetting theories, amnesia, and memory enhancement techniques.

Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, retrieving, and __________ knowledge.

using

Memory is differentiated from learning in that memory is defined as learning that __________ over time.

persists

The three basic processes of memory are encoding, storage, and __________.

retrieval

Unlike effortful encoding, __________ encoding requires no conscious mental effort and processes information related to space, time, frequency, or well-learned material.

automatic

In 1887, __________ developed a digit span test and discovered that people could accurately recall an average of 7 digits.

Joseph Jacobs

George Miller (1956) introduced the concept of informational 'chunks' and established that short-term memory capacity is __________ items.

$$7 \pm 2$$

Short-term memory holds information currently in conscious awareness for a duration of up to __________ seconds without rehearsal.

20

In the Information Processing Model shown below, sensory information that receives __________ moves into short-term memory rather than being lost.

attention

While maintenance rehearsal relies on simple repetition, __________ rehearsal involves reorganising information meaningfully and requires effortful encoding.

elaborative

The memory strategy of grouping separate bits of information into meaningful single units like KFC or ROYGBIV is known as __________.

chunking

According to the serial position effect, the __________ effect explains why items at the beginning of a list are remembered well due to transfer into long-term memory.

primacy

In the serial position effect, superior recall for items at the end of a list because they are still present in short-term memory is called the __________ effect.

recency

Long-term memory is divided into declarative memory and non-declarative memory, which is also known as __________ memory.

procedural

Within declarative memory, memory for specific personal events and life experiences is termed __________ memory.

episodic

Declarative memory that stores general facts, concepts, and objective knowledge is known as __________ memory.

semantic

During periods of excitement or stress, the amygdala stimulates the release of adrenalin and noradrenalin, which prompts the release of __________ into the bloodstream to boost brain activity and embed emotional memories.

glucose

The theory of __________ posits that incoming information displaces existing information in short-term memory because of its limited capacity.

displacement

According to the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, the sharpest decline in retained information occurs within __________ after initial learning.

one hour

As shown in the anatomical comparison below, an Alzheimer's brain exhibits enlarged fluid spaces known as __________ alongside shrinkage of the cortex and hippocampus.

ventricles

Forgetting that occurs when previously learned information disrupts the encoding or recall of new information is called __________ interference.

proactive

When newly acquired information interferes with the ability to retrieve previously learned material, it is known as __________ interference.

retroactive

According to retrieval failure theory, memory is not actually lost from long-term memory but is inaccessible due to an absent or mismatched __________.

retrieval cue

The inability to form new long-term memories following brain injury or illness is known as __________ amnesia.

anterograde

The inability to recall memories and events that occurred prior to brain damage or trauma is termed __________ amnesia.

retrograde

Following a viral herpes infection that damaged his brain, patient __________ suffered both anterograde and retrograde amnesia but retained his procedural musical ability.

Clive Wearing

In the Level of Processing Model, the deepest level that yields the strongest long-term retention through elaborative rehearsal is __________ processing.

semantic

The mnemonic technique of associating items to be remembered with specific landmarks along a familiar physical path or location is known as the __________.

Method of Loci

Distributing study sessions across multiple intervals over time, known as __________, produces stronger neural pathways and superior retrieval compared to cramming.

spaced practice