Module 7: Cognition (Memory, Attention), Intelligence, & Dementia

Autobiographical memory

Remembering information and events from your own life

Automatic processing

Processes that are fast, reliable, and insensitive to increased cognitive demands

Cognitive reserve

Factors that provide flexibility in responding and adapting to changes in the environment

Divided attention

Ability to pay attention and perform more than one task at a time

Effortful processing

Processing requiring all available attentional capacity

Encoding

Process of getting information into the memory system

Recall

Remembering information without cues

Recognition

Remembering information by selecting from previously learned items

Rehearsal

Holding information in working memory by repetition or meaningful connections

Retrieval

Getting information back out of memory

Semantic memory

Memory for meaning of words and concepts not tied to events

Sensory memory

Brief, almost identical representation of stimuli in the environment

Source memory

Remembering the source of an event or whether it was imagined

Speed of processing

How quickly early steps in information processing are completed

Storage

How information is represented and kept in memory

Strategies

Techniques that make learning or remembering easier

Transient global amnesia

Temporary complete memory loss and disorientation

Working memory

Processes of holding and using information to solve problems or make decisions

Episodic memory

Conscious recollection of specific events in time

Explicit memory

Intentional and conscious recollection of information

External aids

Memory aids relying on environmental resources

False memory

Remembering items or events that did not occur

Flashbulb memories

Memories for traumatic or unexpected events

Implicit memory

Effortless and unconscious recollection of information

Information-processing model

Approach studying how stimuli are transformed into memories

Internal aids

Memory aids that rely on mental processes

Long-term memory

Memory for large amounts of information over long periods

Memory monitoring

Awareness of what we are doing in memory right now

Memory self-efficacy

Belief in one’s ability to perform a memory task

Metamemory

Knowledge about how memory works and beliefs about it

Processing resources

Amount of attention available for a task

Prospective memory

Remembering to remember something in the future

Accommodation

Changing one’s thought to better approximate experience

Assimilation

Using existing knowledge to interpret new information

Cognitive-structural approach

Intelligence approach focusing on conceptualizing problems

Crystallized intelligence

Knowledge acquired through life experience and education

Factor

Interrelations among performances on similar tests of intelligence

Fluid intelligence

Abilities for flexible, adaptive thinking and understanding relations among concepts

Interindividual variability

Acknowledging adults differ in intellectual development direction

Mechanics of intelligence

Neurophysiological architecture of the mind

Multidimensional

Concept that intelligence has many dimensions

Multidirectionality

Distinct patterns of change in abilities across the lifespan

Neural efficiency hypothesis

Intelligent people process information more efficiently with fewer activations

Optimally exercised ability

Ability shown under best conditions of training or practice

Plasticity

Range of functioning and conditions under which abilities can be modified

Postformal thought

Thinking recognizing truth varies, solutions must be realistic, ambiguity exists

Pragmatic intelligence

Knowledge embedded in culture

Primary mental abilities

Independent abilities within psychometric intelligence

Psychometric approach

Defining intelligence through standardized test performance

Reflective judgment

Reasoning through dilemmas involving current affairs, religion, science, etc.

Secondary mental abilities

Broad skills composed of several primary abilities

Structure of intelligence

Organization of interrelated intellectual abilities

Terminal decline

Gradual decline in cognitive function near death

Unexercised ability

Ability shown without practice or training