Chapter 7: Cognition

Aptitudes

Innate potentialities

Algorithms

Problem-solving procedures or formulas

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to remember information previously stored in memory. (Compare with anterograde amnesia)

Morphemes

The meaningful units in a language that make up words. Some whole words are morpemes (example: word); other morphemes include grammatical components that alter a word's meaning (examples: -ed, -ing, and un-).

Engram

The physical changes in the brain associated with a memory. It is also known as the memory trace.

Language acquisition device or LAD

A biologically organized mental structure in the brain that facilitates the learning of language because (according to Chomsky) it is innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar

Proactive interference

A cause of forgetting by which newly learned information is presented. Generally, items in the middle of the sequence are less well remembered than items presented first or last.

Retroactive interference

A cause of forgetting by which newly learned information prevents retrieval of previously stored material.

Flashbulb memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event.

Script

A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions

Information-processing model

A cognitive understanding of memory, emphasizing how information is changed when it is encoded, stored, or retrieved.

Declarative memory

A division of LTM that stores explicit information; also known as fact memory. Has two subdivisions: episodic memory and semantic memory.

Procedural memory

A division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done.

Serial position effect

A form of interference related to the sequence in which information is presented. Generally, items in the middle of the sequence are less well remembered than items presented first or last.

Forgetting curve

A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material, such as a list of nonsense syllables. The typical forgetting curve is steep at first, becoming flatter as time goes on.

Misattribution

A memory fault that occurs when memories are retrieved but are associated with the wrong time, place, or person.

Persistence

A memory problem in which unwanted memories cannot be put out of mind.

Mood-congruent memory

A memory process that selectively retrieves memories that match (are congruent with) one's mood.

Implicit memory

A memory that was not deliberately learned or which you have no conscious awareness.

Method of loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations.

Recall

A retrieval memory in which one must reproduce previously presented information.

Recognition

A retrieval method in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presented.

Semantic memory

A subdivision of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts.

Episodic memory

A subdivision of declarative memory that stores memory for personal events, or "episodes."

Priming

A technique for cuing implicit memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory without awareness of the connection between the cue and the retrieved memory.

Elaboration rehearsal

A working-memory process in which information is actively reviewed and related to information already in LTM.

Maintenance rehearsal

A working-memory process in which information is merely repeated or reviewed to keep it from fading while in working memory. Maintenance rehearsal involves no active elaboration.

Eidetic imagery

An especially clear and persistent form of memory that is quite rare; sometimes known as "photographic memory."

Memory

Any system-human, animal, or machine-that encodes, stores, and retrieves information.

Overregulation

Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms.

Event-related potentials

Brain waves in response to stimulation

Heuristics

Cognitive strategies or "rules of thumb" used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks

Artificial concepts

Concepts defined by rules, such as word definitions and math formulas

Representativeness bias

Faulty heuristic based on the presumption that once people or events are categorized, they share all the features of other members in that category

Anchoring bias

Faulty heuristic caused by basing an estimate on an unrelated quantity

Availability bias

Faulty heuristic that estimates probabilities on information that can be recalled

Absent-mindedness

Forgetting caused by lapses in attention.

Blocking

Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrieved. Blocking is caused by interference.

Prototype

Ideal or most representative example of a conceptual category

Expectancy Bias

In memory, a tendency to distort recalled events to make them fit one's expectations.

Functional fixedness

Inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose

Schema

Knowledge luster or general conceptual framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, etc.

Concept hierarchies

Levels of concepts in which a more general level includes more specific concepts

Explicit memory

Memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled.

Creativity

Mental process that provides novel responses for problems

Concepts

Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience.

Natural concepts

Mental representations of objects drawn from our direct experience

Whole method

Mnemonic strategy of first approaching the material to be learned as a whole, and then learning details

Encoding

One of the three basic tasks of memory, involving the modification of information to fit the preferred format for the memory system.

Storage

One of the three basic tasks of memory, involving the retention of encoded material over time.

Chunking

Organizing pieces of information into a smaller number of meaningful units (or chunks)- a process that frees up space in working memory.

Retrieval cues

Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior.

Overlearning

Strategy when the learner continues to study and rehearse the material after it has been brought to mastery

Distributed learning

Technique where learner spaces learning sessions over time

Mnemonics

Techniques for improving memory, especially by making connections between new material and information already in long-term memory.

Mental set

Tendency to respond to a new problem in the strategy used for a previous problem

Hindsight bias

Tendency, after learning about an event, to "second guess" that one could have predicted the events

Self-consistency bias

The commonly held idea that we are more consistent in our attitudes, opinions, and beliefs than we actually are.

Acoustic encoding

The conversion of information, especially semantic information, to sound patterns in working memory.

Misinformation effect

The distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformation.

Encoding specificity principle

The doctrine that memory is encoded and stored with specific cues related to the context in which it was formed. The more closely the retrieval cues match the form in which the information was encoded, the better it will be remembered.

Levels-of processing theory

The explanation for the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful items in long-term memory (more "deeply" processed) will be remembered better.

Sensory memory

The first of three memory stages, preserving brief sensory impressions of stimuli.

Computer metaphor

The idea that the brain is an information-processing organ that operates, in some ways, like a computer.

Transience

The impermanence of a long-term memory. Transience is based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over time.

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to form memories for new information (as opposed to retrograde amnesia, which involves the inability to remember information previously stored in memory).

TOT phemonenon

The inability to recall a word, while knowing that it is in memory. People often describe this frustrating experience as having the word "on the tip of their tongue."

Consolidation

The process by which short-term memories are changed to long-term memories over a period of time.

Suggestibility

The process of memory distortion as the result of deliberate or inadvertent suggestion.

Grammar

The rules of a language, specifying how to use words, morphemes, and syntax to produce understandable sentences.

Working memory

The second of three memory stages, and the most limited in capacity. It preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute without rehearsal.

Retrieval

The third basic task of memory, involving the location and recovery of information from memory.

Long-term memory (LTM)

The third of three memory stages, with the largest capacity and longest duration; LTM stores material organized according to meaning.

Natural language mediators

Words associated with new information to be remembered.