Chapter 8Terms:Amnesia: the loss of memoryRehearsal: the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storageMnemonics: memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices. Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memoryRecognition: a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.Spacing Effect: the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.Photographic Memory: Flashbulb memories: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. Serial Position Effect: our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list. Sperling’s partial report 7 ± 2Patient HM: most famous case in which a patient experienced in 1953 the necessary surgical removal of a brain area involved in laying new conscious memories of facts and experiences. The brain tissue loss left his older memories intact- at last repot he was still doing daily crossword puzzles. But converting new experiences to long-term stprage was another matter. Concepts:Sensory Memory: the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory systemIconic memory: a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.Echoic memory: a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 secondsShort Term Memory: activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten.Long-term Memory: the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skill, and experienceImplicit memory: retention independent of conscious recollection processed in the hippocampus, (also called nondeclarative memory). They can learn how to do something.Explicit memory: memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare. Processed by other brain areas including the cerebellum. Also called declarative memory.Hippocampus: a neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.Cerebellum: plays an important part in our forming and storing of implicit memories.Encoding: the processing of information into the memory systemStorage: the retention of encoded information over timeMaintenance: Retrieval: the process of getting information out of memory storageAutomatic processing: unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.Effortful processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.Rehearsal: the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.Proactive interference: (forward-acting) the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new informationRetroactive interference: (backward-acting) the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old informationConstructive memoryChapter 9Terms:Cognition: the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicatingConcept: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or peoplePrototype: a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to aprototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin). Trial and Error: Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier- but also more error-prone- use of heuristicsInsight: a sudden and often novel realization f the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutionsFixation: the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set. Mental set: a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the pastFunctional Fixedness: the tendency to think only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgmentsBelief Perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.Confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. Intuition: an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoningFraming: the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments Aphasia: impairment of language usually cause by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s areas (impairing speaking) or to Wrnickes’s area (impairing understanding)Broca’s area: controls language expression- an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speechWenicke’s area: controls language reception- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobeConcepts:Language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaningLinguistic Determinism: Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we thinkStages of Language4 months: babbles many speech sounds- babbling stage: the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language10 months: babbling resembles household language12 months: one-word stage: the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to during which a child speaks mostly in single words24 months: two-word stage: a child mostly speaks 2 word statement. Telegraphic speech: a child speaks like a telegram “go car” using mostly nouns and verbs.24+ months: language develops rapidly into complete sentencesGrammar: in a language, a system of rules that enable us to communicate with and
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