Cognitive Psychology & Memory

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Structuralism

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Defines psychology as a science of immediate experience, built from elements of consciousness such as ideas and sensations.

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Functionalism

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Interested in the process of conscious activity, emphasising the biological significance of behaviours.

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Behaviourism

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Examines the process of learning as it translates to observable behaviour.

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Selective attention

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Determines which events we become conscious of.

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Inattentional Blindness

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Failure to process information that is not attended to.

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Bottom-Up Processing

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Stimulus-driven mechanism whereby attention is attracted by information within the environment.

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Top-Down Processing

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Goal-driven mechanism in which attention is driven by our own motivation.

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Hemi-Neglect

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A condition in which damage to the right hemisphere causes attentional deficits to the right visual field.

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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

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A neurological developmental disorder affecting 3-5% of children, involving constant motion, impatience, distractability and lack of focus.

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Divided Attention

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When more than one event is being attended to; our limited cognitive resources can be spread but efficiency is reduced.

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Declarative/Explicit Memory

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Memory that is expressible in words e.g. semantic or episodic memory.

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Episodic Memory

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A type of declarative memory for personally experienced events.

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Semantic Memory

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A form of declarative memory for general knowledge, language, word meanings and conceptual information.

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Flashbulb Memory

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Vivid, long-lasting memories of distinctive, unexpected and highly emotional events.

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Autobiographical Memory

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Memory for events of our own life, major life goals, emotions and personal meanings.

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Autonoetic Consciousness

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A sense of self-recollection ("I remember"), required for episodic memory.

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Noetic Consciousness

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A sense of general knowledge ("I know), necessary for semantic memory.

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Three Stages of Memory Processing

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Encoding, Retention and Retrieval.

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Craik's (1972) Level of Processing Theory

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Memory recall is a function of the depth of mental processing; shallow processing leaves fragile memory traces whereas deep processing is more durable.

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Schema

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A mental structure to organise and simplify our knowledge of the world, helping us to understand situations, behave correctly and predict common events.

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Scripts

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Well-structured sequences of events associated with a particular activity.

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Metacognition

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Thinking about thinking; knowledge and control of our own cognitive processes.

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Metamemory

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Memory capabilities and strategies that can aid memory; the processes involved in memory self-monitoring.

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Tip of the Tongue State

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A common experience involving a failure to recall a word of which we have knowledge.

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Judgements of Learning

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Evaluating how much studying will be required to learn particular information.

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Feeling of Knowing Judgements

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Our feelings regarding our knowledge for a specific subject, and whether or not that information exists within our memory.

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Types of Rehearsal

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Maintenance rehearsal involves repeating items over and over again in order to improve short-term memory, whereas elaborative rehearsal requires consideration of the meaning of the information to improve long-term memory.

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Prospective Memory

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Remembering to carry out an action in the future, and recalling when this will be required (low information content).

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Retrospective Memory

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Remembering events from the past and recalling what we know about something (high information content).

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Mnemonic

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A learning technique that aids information retention, aiming to translate information into an easily memorable form e.g. method of loci, acronym, narrative, rhyme.

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Anterograde Amnesia

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A condition whereby the ability to memorise new things is impaired or lost.

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Retrograde Amnesia

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A condition in which a person's pre-existing memories are lost to conscious recollection.

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Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve

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A graph showing how information rapidly decays from memory shortly after encoding, then is forgotten more slowly as time passes.

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Passive Forgetting

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Non-rehearsed memory traces fade with time due to the lack of consolidation of information.

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Proactive Interference

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When old learning disrupts new learning, e.g. prior knowledge of one language interferes with the ability to learn a new language.

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Retroactive Interference

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When new learning disrupts old learning e.g. when you learn how to use a new phone, it is difficult to remember how to use your old one.

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Social Contagion of Memory/Memory Conformity

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When one person's report of an event affects another's memory for the same event e.g. in eyewitness testimony.

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Post-Event Misinformation Bias

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Occurs when eyewitness memory is distorted by misleading information or leading questions.