Unit 5 Cognitive Psychology

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1. algorithm a methodical, logical rule or procedure that 16. déjà vu that eerie sense that "I've experienced this
guarantees solving a particular problem. before." Cues from the current situation may
Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier
more error-prone—use of heuristics. experience.
2. anterograde an inability tan inability to retrieve 17. divergent expanding the number of possible problem
amnesia information from one's past. (Myers thinking solutions; creative thinking that diverges in
Psychology for AP 3e p. 351)o form new different directions.
memories.
18. echoic a momentary sensory memory of auditory
3. aphasia impairment of language, usually caused by memory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and
left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area words can still be recalled within 3 or 4
(impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area seconds.
(impairing understanding).
19. effortful encoding that requires attention and
4. automatic unconscious encoding of incidental processing conscious effort.
processing information, such as space, time, and
20. encoding the process of getting information into the
frequency, and of well-learned information,
memory system— for example, by extracting
such as word meanings.
meaning.
5. availability estimating the likelihood of events based on
21. encoding the idea that cues and contexts specific to a
heuristic their availability in memory; if instances come
specificity particular memory will be most effective in
readily to mind (perhaps because of their
principle helping us recall it.
vividness), we presume such events are
common. 22. episodic explicit memory of personally experienced
memory events; one of our two conscious memory
6. babbling beginning around 4 months, the stage of
systems (the other is semantic memory).
stage speech development in which an infant
spontaneously utters various sounds at first 23. explicit retention of facts and experiences that one
unrelated to the household language. memory can consciously know and "declare." (Also
called declarative memory.)
7. belief clinging to one's initial conceptions after the
perseverance basis on which they were formed has been 24. fixation (1) in cognition, the inability to see a problem
discredited. from a new perspective; an obstacle to
problem solving. (2) in personality theory,
8. Broca's area helps control language expression—an area
according to Freud, a lingering focus of
of the frontal lobe, usually in the left
pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier
hemisphere, that directs the muscle
psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were
movements involved in speech.
unresolved.
9. chunking organizing items into familiar, manageable
25. flashbulb a clear, sustained memory of an emotionally
units; often occurs automatically.
memory significant moment or event.
10. cognition all the mental activities associated with
26. framing the way an issue is posed; how an issue is
thinking, knowing, remembering, and
worded can significantly affect decisions and
communicating.
judgments.
11. concept a mental grouping of similar objects, events,
27. grammar in a language, a system of rules that enables
ideas, or people.
us to communicate with and understand
12. confirmation a tendency to search for information that others. Semantics is the language's set of rules
bias supports our preconceptions and to ignore for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax
or distort contradictory evidence. is its set of rules for combining words into
grammatically sensible sentences.
13. convergent narrowing the available problem solutions to
thinking determine the single best solution. 28. heuristic a simple thinking strategy that often allows us
to make judgments and solve problems
14. creativity the ability to produce new and valuable
efficiently; usually speedier but also more
ideas.
error-prone than an algorithm.
15. deep encoding semantically, based on the meaning
29. hippocampus a neural center located in the limbic system;
processing of the words; tends to yield the best
helps process for storage explicit (conscious)
retention.
memories of facts and events.
30. iconic memory a momentary sensory memory of visual 46. one-word stage the stage in speech development, from
stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no about age 1 to 2, during which a child
more than a few tenths of a second. speaks mostly in single words.
31. implicit retention of learned skills or classically 47. overconfidence the tendency to be more confident than
memory conditioned associations independent of correct—to overestimate the accuracy
conscious recollection. (Also called of our beliefs and judgments.
nondeclarative memory.)
48. parallel processing processing many aspects of a problem
32. insight a sudden realization of a problem's solution; simultaneously; the brain's natural
contrasts with strategy-based solutions. mode of information processing for
many functions.
33. intuition an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling
or thought, as contrasted with explicit, 49. phoneme in a language, the smallest distinctive
conscious reasoning. sound unit.
34. language our spoken, written, or signed words and 50. priming the activation, often unconsciously, of
the ways we combine them to communicate certain associations, thus predisposing
meaning. one's perception, memory, or response.
35. linguistic the strong form of Whorf's hypothesis—that 51. proactive the forward-acting disruptive effect of
determinism language controls the way we think and interference older learning on the recall of new
interpret the world around us. information.
36. linguistic the weaker form of "linguistic relativity"—the 52. prototype a mental image or best example of a
influence idea that language affects thought (thus our category. Matching new items to a
thinking and world view is "relative to" our prototype provides a quick and easy
cultural language). method for sorting items into
categories (as when comparing
37. long-term the relatively permanent and limitless
feathered creatures to a prototypical
memory storehouse of the memory system. Includes
bird, such as a robin).
knowledge, skills, and experiences.
53. recall a measure of memory in which the
38. long-term an increase in a cell's firing potential after
person must retrieve information
potentiation brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for
learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank
(LTP) learning and memory.
test.
39. memory the persistence of learning over time
54. recognition a measure of memory in which the
through the encoding, storage, and retrieval
person identifies items previously
of information.
learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
40. memory the neural storage of a long-term memory.
55. relearning a measure of memory that assesses the
consolidation
amount of time saved when learning
41. mental set a tendency to approach a problem in one material again.
particular way, often a way that has been
56. representativeness estimating the likelihood of events in
successful in the past.
heuristic terms of how well they seem to
42. misinformation occurs when misleading information has represent, or match, particular
effect distorted one's memory of an event. prototypes; may lead us to ignore
43. mnemonics memory aids, especially those techniques other relevant information.
that use vivid imagery and organizational 57. repression in psychoanalytic theory, the basic
devices. defense mechanism that banishes from
44. mood- the tendency to recall experiences that are consciousness anxiety-arousing
congruent consistent with one's current good or bad thoughts, feelings, and memories.
memory mood. 58. retrieval the process of getting information out
45. morpheme in a language, the smallest unit that carries of memory storage.
meaning; may be a word or a part of a 59. retroactive the backward-acting disruptive effect
word (such as a prefix). interference of newer learning on the recall of old
information.
60. retrograde an inability to retrieve information from one's past.
amnesia
61. semantic explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic
memory memory).
62. sensory the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
memory
63. serial our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.
position
effect
64. shallow encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words.
processing
65. short-term activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as digits of a phone number while calling, before the information
memory is stored or forgotten.
66. source faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.)
amnesia Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
67. spacing the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed
effect study or practice.
68. storage the process of retaining encoded information over time.
69. telegraphic early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.
speech
70. testing enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval
effect practice effect or test-enhanced learning.
71. two-word beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
stage
72. Wernicke's a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.
area
73. working a newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual
memory information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.