ch.7

• Cognition: Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.
• Cognitive psychology key contributors include Noam Chomsky, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Wolfgang Kohler, Elizabeth Loftus, and George A. Miller.
• Memory: A system that encodes, stores and retrieves information.
• According to the information-processing model, the human brain takes essentially meaningless information and turns it into meaningful patterns through three steps: Putting it in: Encoding, Keeping it in: Storage, and Getting it out: Retrieval.
• Sensory Memory consists of iconic memory for visual stimuli, echoic memory for auditory stimuli, tactile sensory memory, olfactory memory, and gustatory memory.
• Working Memory, also known as short-term memory, has three basic parts: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Encoding is the modification of information to fit the preferred format for the memory system, and it can be automatic or require extra effort, known as elaboration.
• Encoding time is the amount of time it takes to relearn a list on day 2, measured in minutes.
• Learning a new language gets harder with age.
• Babbles many speech sounds, which reveals the language of the household.
• Carl Wernicke studied problems arising from damage in an area of the brain, Wernicke’s area, which is involved in understanding the meaning of words.
• Neurologist Paul Broca proved that damage to Broca’s area resulted in deficits in fluent and articulate speech, a condition known as Broca’s aphasia.
• Wernicke’s aphasia is characterized by speaking fluently and pronouncing words correctly, but saying the wrong words, and trouble in understanding what people say.
• In Broca’s aphasia, speech is halting and words are mispronounced or left out entirely, for example, saying “cot” instead of “clock” or “non” for “nine”.
• Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience fills them as it modifies the brain.
• Two-word, telegraphic speech.
• Whorf’s hypothesis, also known as Linguistic Relativity, proposes that language determines the way we think.
• One-word stage.
• Broca’s area is an area in the left frontal lobe of the brain (in most people) devoted to the production of speech.
• Language develops rapidly into complete sentences.
• Number of repetitions of list on day 1 is the number of times the list was repeated on day 1.
• Encoding types include semantic encoding, acoustic encoding, and visual encoding.
• Levels of Processing theory suggests that processing a word by its meaning (semantic encoding) produces better recognition of it at a later time.
• Storage: The retention of encoding material over time involves three stages: Sensory Memory, Working Memory (short-term memory), and Long-term Memory.
• A good example of this approach is Atkinson & Shiffrin’s Multi-Store Model of working Memory.
• The levels-of-processing theory suggests that the way information is encoded affects how well it is remembered.
• Memory traces are the collection of neurotransmitters that accumulate at the synapses before absolute threshold is crossed.
• Studies show that people with amnesia who read a story once, will read it faster a second time, demonstrating implicit memory.
• Retrieval clues are search terms we use to activate memory—think of a Google search.
• There is no limit to the duration or capacity of the long term memory.
• In the middle stages of Alzheimer's, the individual has problems with their short term memory.
• A memory is implicit if it can affect behavior or mental processes without becoming fully conscious.
• People with Alzheimer's who are repeatedly shown the word perfume will not recall having seen it, but if asked the first word that comes to mind in response to the letters perfume, they say perfume readily displaying learning.
• Some memories are easily remembered, while others are much harder to bring up.
• In the later stages of Alzheimer's, the individual's long term memory is severely impaired.
• Retrograde Amnesia is the inability to recall events that occurred before the development of amnesia.
• If you like Disney movies, it may be easier to remember the seven dwarves.
• If people around you are being loud, it may be harder to concentrate and remember the seven dwarves.
• Explicit memories always involve consciousness.
• Retrieval depends on both implicit & explicit memory.