Weiten Ch 7

Front 1

Afterimage

Back 1

A visual image that persists after a stimulus is removed.

Front 2

Amnesia

Back 2

A significant memory loss that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting. See also Anterograde amnesia, Retrograde amnesia.

Front 3

Anterograde amnesia

Back 3

Loss of memories for events that occur after a head injury.

Front 4

Attention

Back 4

Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.

Front 5

Chunk

Back 5

A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.

Front 6

Clustering

Back 6

The tendency to remember similar or related items in groups.

Front 7

Cognition

Back 7

The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.

Front 8

Conceptual hierarchy

Back 8

A multilevel classification system based on common properties among items.

Front 9

Connectionist models

Back 9

See parallel distributed processing (PDP) models.

Front 10

Consolidation

Back 10

A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory.

Front 11

Decay theory

Back 11

The idea that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time.

Front 12

Declarative memory system

Back 12

Memory for factual information.

Front 13

Dual-coding theory

Back 13

Paivio's theory that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall.

Front 14

Elaboration

Back 14

Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding.

Front 15

Electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB)

Back 15

Sending a weak electric current into a brain structure to stimulate (activate) it.

Front 16

Encoding

Back 16

Forming a memory code.

Front 17

Encoding specificity principle

Back 17

The idea that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code.

Front 18

Episodic memory system

Back 18

Chronological, or temporally dated, recollections of personal experiences.

Front 19

Explicit memory

Back 19

Intentional recollection of previous experiences.

Front 20

Flashbulb memories

Back 20

Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events.

Front 21

Forgetting curve

Back 21

A graph showing retention and forgetting over time.

Front 22

Hindbrain

Back 22

The part of the brain that includes the cerebellum and two structures found in the lower part of the brainstem: the medulla and the pons.

Front 23

Hindsight bias

Back 23

The tendency to mold one's interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out.

Front 24

Implicit memory

Back 24

Type of memory apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering.

Front 25

Interference theory

Back 25

The idea that people forget information because of competition from other material.

Front 26

Introspection

Back 26

Careful, systematic observation of one's own conscious experience.

Front 27

Keyword method

Back 27

A mnemonic technique in which one associates a concrete word with an abstract word and generates an image to represent the concrete word.

Front 28

Levels-of-processing theory

Back 28

The theory holding that deeper levels of mental processing result in longer-lasting memory codes.

Front 29

Link method

Back 29

Forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together.

Front 30

Long-term memory (LTM)

Back 30

An unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time.

Front 31

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Back 31

A long-lasting increase in neural excitability in synapses along a specific neural pathway.

Front 32

Method of loci

Back 32

A mnemonic device that involves taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations.

Front 33

Mnemonic devices

Back 33

Strategies for enhancing memory.

Front 34

Motivated forgetting

Back 34

Purposeful suppression of memories.

Front 35

Nondeclarative memory system

Back 35

Memory for actions, skills, and operations.

Front 36

Overlearning

Back 36

Continued rehearsal of material after one first appears to have mastered it.

Front 37

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models

Back 37

Models of memory that assume cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks. Also called connectionist models.

Front 38

Parallel processing

Back 38

Simultaneously extracting different kinds of information from the same input.

Front 39

Proactive interference

Back 39

A memory problem that occurs when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information.

Front 40

Procedural memory system

Back 40

The repository of memories for actions, skills, and operations.

Front 41

Prospective memory

Back 41

The ability to remember to perform actions in the future.

Front 42

Reality monitoring

Back 42

The process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources (our perceptions of actual events) or internal sources (our thoughts and imaginations).

Front 43

Recall

Back 43

A memory test that requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues.

Front 44

Recognition

Back 44

A memory test that requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options.

Front 45

Relearning

Back 45

A memory test that requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or effort is saved by having learned it before.

Front 46

Repression

Back 46

Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious.

Front 47

Retention

Back 47

The proportion of material retained (remembered).

Front 48

Retrieval

Back 48

Recovering information from memory stores.

Front 49

Retroactive interference

Back 49

A memory problem that occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned information.

Front 50

Retrograde amnesia

Back 50

Loss of memories for events that occurred prior to a head injury.

Front 51

Retrospective memory

Back 51

The ability to remember events from the past or previously learned information.

Front 52

Schema

Back 52

An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or sequence of events.

Front 53

Script

Back 53

A type of schema that organizes what people know about common activities.

Front 54

Self-referent encoding

Back 54

Deciding how or whether information is personally relevant.

Front 55

Semantic memory system

Back 55

General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned.

Front 56

Semantic network

Back 56

Concepts joined together by links that show how the concepts are related.

Front 57

Sensory memory

Back 57

The preservation of information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second.

Front 58

Serial-position effect

Back 58

In memory tests, the fact that subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle.

Front 59

Short-term memory (STM)

Back 59

A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Front 60

Source monitoring

Back 60

The process of making attributions about the origins of memories.

Front 61

Source-monitoring error

Back 61

An error that occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source.

Front 62

Storage

Back 62

Maintaining encoded information in memory over time.

Front 63

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Back 63

A temporary inability to remember something accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach.

Front 64

Transfer-appropriate processing

Back 64

The situation that occurs when the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measures of attention.