Cognitive Psychology Chapter 6

context- dependent learning

A pattern of data in which materials learned in one setting are well remembered when the person returns to that setting, but less well remembered in other settings.

word-stem completion

A task in which people are given the beginning of a word (e.g., "TOM") and must provide a word that starts with the letters provided. In some versions of the task, only one solution is possible, and so performance is measured by counting the number of words completed. In other versions of the task, several solution are possible for each stem, and performance.

lexical-decision task

A test in which participants are shown strings of letters and must indicate as quickly as possible, whether each string of letters is a word in English or not. It is supposed that people perform this task by "looking up" these strings in their "mental dictionary"

summate

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direct memory testing

A form of memory testing in which people are asked explicitly to remember some previous event. Recall and standard recognition testing are both forms of direct memory testing. Often contrasted with indirect memory testing

Korsakoff's syndrome

a clinical syndrome characterized primarily by dense anterograde amnesia. Korsakoff's syndrome is caused by damage to specific brain regions, and it is often precipitated by a form of malnutrition common among long-term alcoholics.

"remember/know"

a distinction between two expreiences you can have in recalling a past event. If you "remember" having encountered a stimulus before, then you usually can offer information about that encounter, including when, where, and how it occurred. If you merely "know" that you encountered a stimulus before, then you are likely to have a sense of familiarity with the stimulus but may have no idea when or where the stimulus was last encountered

amnesia

a distruption of memory, often due to brain damage

indirect memory testing

a form of memory testing in which research participants are not told that their memories are being tested. Instead, they are tested in a fashion in which previous experiences can influence current behavior. Examples of indirect tests include word-stem completion, the lexical decision task, and tachistoscopic recognition. Often contrasted with direct memory testing

source memory

a form of memory that allows you to recollect the episode in which learning took place or the time and place in which a particular stimulus was encountered

response threshold

the quantity of information, or quantity of activation, needed in order to trigger a response

processing pathway

the sequence of detectors and nodes, and the connections among these various units, that activation flows through in dealing with (recognizing or thinking about) a specific stimulus

attribution

the step of explaining a feeling or event, usually by identifying the factors (or an earlier event) that are the cause of the current feeling or event. Hence this term is often elaborated with the more specific term: casual attribution.

recognition

the task of memory retrieval in which the items to be remembered are presented and the person must decide whether or not the item was encountered in some earlier circumstance. Thus, for example, one might be asked, "Have you ever seen this person before?" or "is this the poster you saw in the office yesterday?" Often contrasted with recall

recall

the task of memory retrieval in which the rememberer must come up with the desired materials, sometimes in response to a cue that names the context in which these materials were earlier encountered ("Name the pictures you saw earlier"), sometimes in response to a question that requires the sought-after information ("Name a fruit") or "what is the capital of california?") often contrasted with recognition

encoding specificty

the tendency, when memorizing, to place in memory both the materials to be learned and also some amount of the context of those materials. As a result, these materials will be recognized as familiar, later on, only if the materials appear again in a similar context.

fires

to respond in a discrete and specific way - as when a neuron, after receiving a strong enough stimulus, sends a signal down its axon, which in turn causes a release of neurotransmitter from the membrane at the end of the axon

activation level

a measure of the current status for a node or detector. Activation level is increased if the node or detector receives the appropriate input from its associated nodes or detectors; activation level will be high if input has been received frequently or recently

source confusion

a memory error in which you mis remember where a bit of information was learned or where a particular stimulus was last encountered

explicit memories

a memory revealed by direct memory testing and typically accompanied by the conviction that one is, in fact, remembering - that is, drawing on some sort of knowledge (perhaps knowledge about a specific prior episode, or perhaps more general knowledge). Often contrasted with implicit memory.

implicit memories

a memory revealed by indirect memory testing and usually manifested as a priming effect in which current performance is guided or facilitated by previous experiences. Implicit memories are often accompanied by no conscious realization that one is, in fact, being influenced by specific past experiences. Often contrasted with explicit memory.

context reinstatement

a procedure in which someone is led to the same mental and emotional state he or she was in during a previous event; context reinstatement can often promote accurate recollection of that event

semantic priming

a process in which activation of an idea in memory causes activation to spread to other ideas related to the first in meaning.

spreading activation

a process through which activation travels from one node to another, via associative links. As each node becomes activated, it serves as a source for further activation, spreading onward through the network

familiarity

in some circumstances, the subjective feeling that you have encountered a stimulus before; in other circumstances, the objective fact that you have indeed encountered a stimulus before and are now in some way influenced by that encounter, whether or not you recall that encounter or feel that the stimulus is familiar

subthreshold activation

activation levels below response threshold. subthreshold activation, by definition, will not trigger a response; nonetheless, this activation is important because it can accumulate, leading eventually to an activation level that exceeds the response threshold.

illusion of truth

an effect of implicit memory in which claims that are familiar end up seeming more plausible

processing fluency

an improvement in the speed or ease of processing that results from prior practice in using those same processing steps

retrograde amnesia

an inability to remember experiences that occured befoer the event that triggered the memory disruption. Often contrasted with anterograde amnesia

anterograde amnesia

an inability to remember experiences that occurred after the event that triggered the memory disruption

nodes

an individual unit within an associative network. In a scheme using local representations, nodes represent single ideas or concepts. In a scheme using distributed representations, ideas or contents are represented by a pattern of activation across a wide number of nodes may also participate in other patterns and therefore in other representations

retrieval cue

an instruction or stimulus input, provided at the time of recall, that can potentially guide recall and help the person to retrieve the target memory

associations (associative links)

functional connections that are hypothesized to link nodes within a mental network or detectors within a detector network; these associations are often hypothesized as the "carriers" of activation, from one node or detector to the next