Psych 120A Exam 1

Atkinson & Shiffrin model

"classic" and earliest model of memory (stages + processes) Sensory input -> Sensory Registers/Stores -> short-term memory -> long-term memory

Retrieval

"pulling out" information from memory for use at a later time

Mind Wandering

Attention can be transient. People can be unaware that they are "zoning out" even if told to be mindful of their attention

Visual Neglect (Hemispatial Neglect)

Attentional disorder in which patients are unaware or don't respond to objects on one side of space

Combined feature

Combination of features need to find the target Done by checking each item (serial) Requires attention

Critical Lure

Critical lure - words that fit in the same category but did not necessarily appear on the list (FALSE MEMORY)

Declarative Memory

Declarative Memory - aka explicit memory - something that can be articulated when recalled (if someone ask you, you can definitely answer back); mostly facts and events in life Ex: Who is the current president of the US? (Semantic memory - facts/world/object/language/conceptual knowledge); Where did you go for your 20th birthday? (Episodic memory - Specific personal experiences from a particular time and place)

Typical order of recall in FRT

End -> Beginning -> Middle of list

Inhibition of return

Inhibit attention from previously-attended locations, for effective visual search Targets from previously attended location are more slowly responded to than targets from unattended location when long temporary intervals happen between cue and target

Levels of processing

Physical < Acoustic < Semantic

Semantic and Episodic Memory

Semantic info often supplements episodic memory (e.g. mnemonics) Implication: often leads to intrusion errors, or errors in which other knowledge intrudes into remembered event

Late Selection Model (Deutch-Norman Selection Model)

Similar to Early selection model, but the selective filter goes after perceptual process! Everything is given meaning here, but only the attended info reaches STM

Isolated feature

Single feature enough to find target Done in parallel (comparing all features) Preattentive - not demanding attention

Spaced Encoding

Spacing of timing. Spaced is better because in spaced practice, the context at encoding will differ on each repetition

SNARC effect

Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes A "mental number line" is activated when processing numerical information (Note: not just limited to numbers, there are other ways to test link between numerical and spatial representation: letters, months, days of the week)

Triesman's Feature Integration Theory (FIT)

Suggests that we have distinct feature maps (orientation, shape, color, sizes) and each map has info about location of its feature We only consult our feature maps when we do an isolated feature search (faster) while we bind info from 2 (or more maps) when we do combined feature search (slower)

Pretesting Effect

Testing yourself before you learn something

Spacing Effect

The spacing effect is the phenomenon that when repeatedly reviewing learned information spaced out over time makes these items easier to remember.

Testing Effect

The testing effect is the finding that long-term memory is increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be-remembered information through testing with proper feedback.

Attenuation Model (Treisman)

Unattended message is not filtered out completely but just attenuated (weakened). All info (sound, specific words, grammar, and meaning) is processed until capacity is reached. Stuff we don't want to get in does get in (leaky filter)

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Visuo-spatial sketchpad - a slave system for holding information visual/spatial information (e.g., glancing at a map and then holding the routes in mind while looking at a fork in the road)

Letter Detectors

activated when feature detectors are combined; initial recognition of individual letters of a word

Transfer Appropriate Pricessing

adds on LOP; deep LOP is not always better, we need to see how compatible the circumstances of how we're being tested (retrieval) with the way we learned the info (encoding)

Non-declarative memory

aka implicit memory - we can't articulate but we know (behavior based); awareness not necesary Ex: riding bike (procedural memory), habituation and sensitization (conditioning; we can't explain how do we get habituated by clock ticking), "duck" can mean two things (priming)

Inattentional Blindness

aka perceptual blindness; the failure to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight Often leads to failed retrieval of information when prompted Failed retrieval can help later memory

Object-based attention

attending to objects

Selective (focused) Attention

attending to one stimulus will lead to ignoring other things. This informs us about (a) process of selection and (b) what happens to unattended stimuli

Space-based attention

attending to space

Recency effect

better memory for last few items at the end of the list; based on STM

Primacy effect

better memory for the first few items of the list; based on having more chance to rehearse the earlier words, which gets higher chances of getting to LTM ***NOTE: Anything that is not red is retrieved from LTM***

Divided Attention

bility to split attention to multiple processes at the same time. Informs us about (a) processing limitations and (b) attentional capacity. Ex: driving while calling/changing the radio

Geons

detectors for specific basic level object units; geometric elements of w/c all objects are composed (we have 36 different geons; 5 main geons and each geon has variants); assembly aid in object recognition

Bigram Detectors

detectors of letter pairs; where context play a role when recognizing words; sensitive to natural frequency in which letters are combined in native language (some letters go together more than others)

Covert Attention

directing spatial attention is different than moving the eyes

Dichotic Listening test

each ear plays different audio; when told to shadow left ear, person repeats what he hears in left ear

Self-Reference Effect

encoding info wrt oneself increases memory

Intentional Learning

ensures deep processing will occur

Incidental Learning

even in the absence of intention to learn, we can still remember things we processed Implicated in Shallow processing

Facilitation

faster responses to cued location when there is a short delay between cue and target Why? Attention is still at cued location

Inhibition

faster responses to uncued location when there is a long delay between cue and target Why? Inhibition of cued location; already attended to and nothing there

Short Term Memory (STM)

info you are holding in consciousness

Working Memory (WM)

info you are holding in consciousness and doing something about it

Word Superiority Effect

interpreting letters based on our previous knowledge of the word; States that people are more accurate in recognizing a letter in the context of a word that when the letter is presented in isolation or in the context of a non-sense word.

Exogenous

involuntary, stimulus-driven attention facilitated by bottom-up processing (importance of sensory info in generating percepts; when interpretation of perceptions emerges from the data (perception begins with stimulus)) - BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING. Responsible for focusing on unexpected stimulus

Long Term Memory (LTM)

involves recalling info after a couple of minutes and beyond; not currently in consciousness

Elaborative Rehearsal

involves thinking about what to-be-remembered items mean and how they relate to other things we already know; implicated in LOP

Storage

keeping/maintaining information in memory (sealing the info away)

Desirable Difficulties

learning strategies that make learning an effortful process by engaging in the material more thoroughly; learning appears to be a slow process, but this actually leads to a better long term retention

Attention

mental process of directing or concentrating effort on a stimulus or event

Chunking

mnemonic technique that allows us to remember up to 7+/-2 chunks of information without error (grouping a series of apparently random items into a smaller number of meaningful segments to enhance recall)

Feature Detectors

most basic level of detectors; recognizes line segments of individual letters

Priming

often occurring without awareness; things that had been perceived recently are more often recognized implicated in incidental encoding (we have incidental encoding due to previous priming experience)

Generation Effect

people are much better in recalling info when they generate the info themselves (active learning) than when they try to recall after passively read the info

Memory

process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information

Massed Encoding

repetition of same thing, learning everything at once

Encoding

representing information in memory (translating info to brain)

Maintenance Rehearsal

rote, mechanical process of recycling items in WM by repeating them over and over; implicated in Modal Model of Memory

Overt Attention

selectively attending to an item or location over others by moving the eyes to point in that direction

Proactive Interference

shows how STM is influenced by content of LTM; occurs when past memories inhibit an individual's full potential to retain new memories (interaction of new and learned materials that are from the same category); items from similar category start interfering with each other

Stimulus Familiarity

similarity among distractors

Phonological Loop

slave system for holding sound information of memory (auditory speech-based form) (e.g rehearsing a phone number)

Cocktail Party Event

subjects often report hearing their own name in the unattended channel. If early selection model were to be true, subjects should not be aware that their names have been mentioned since this should have technically been filtered out of their attention.

Peripheral-interference hypothesis

suggests that distractions from cellular use roots from holding phone, dialing

Attentional hypothesis

suggests that distractions from cellular use roots from its ability to divert attention from driving to the conversation itself

Automaticity

the ability to do tasks without much attention due to the flexibility of our attention

Recognition by Components (RBC) Theory

theory of how we recognize object; every object can be broken down to geons

Feature Nets

theory of how we recognize words; uses hierarchy of detectors to detect words- activation of lowest level of detectors (feature detector) leads to activation of higher levels of detector

Early Selection Model (Broadbent)

unattended input receives little to no analysis

Endogenous

voluntary, goal-directed attention driven by top-down processes (stress the importance of previous knowledge on the interpretation of incoming stimulus; knowledge or expectations will influence our perceptions) - TOP-DOWN PROCESSING. Responsible for focusing on cued (predicted) stimulus

Mnemonics

ways to link new info to something already stored in memory NOTE: these do not improve our memory, only tricks our brain into remembering more things