Memory/Cognitive Learning

• memory


  any system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information
• encoding


  one of the three basic tasks of memory; involves modification of information
• storage


  one of the three basic tasks of memory; involves retention of encoded material over time
• retrieval


  one of the three basic tasks of memory; involves location and recovery of information
• sensory memory


  preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli
• short-term memory (STM)


  preserves recently perceived events for less than a minute
• long-term memory (LTM)


  largest memory capacity and duration; stores material organized by meaning
• chunking


  organizing pieces of information into smaller, more meaningful units
• procedural memory


  stores memories for how things are done
• declarative memory


  stores facts
• episodic memory


  stores memory for personal events
• semantic memory


  stores general knowledge, including meanings of words
• anterograde amnesia


  inability to for memories for new information
• retrograde amnesia


  inability to remember information previously stored in memory
• flashbulb memory


  clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful event
• implicit memory


  memory that was not deliberately learned
• explicit memory


  memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled
• retrieval cues


  stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness
• priming


  technique for curing implicit memories tha provides cues to stimulate a memory without awareness of the connection
• recall


  retrieval method in which one must reproduce previously presented information
• forgetting curve


  graph plotting amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material
• proactive interference


  cause of forgetting in which previously stored information prevents learning and remembering new information
• retroactive interference


  cause of forgetting by which newly learned information prevents retrieval of previously stored material
• suggestibility


  memory distortion as the result of deliberate or inadvertent suggestion
• misinformation effect


  distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformaiton
• expectancy bias


  a tendency to distort recalled events to make them fit one's expectations
• mnemonics


  techniques for improving memory by making connections between new material and information already in LTM
• method of loci


  mnemonic device that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations
• language acquisition device (LAD)


  biologically organized mental structure that facilitates learning of language because (according to Chomsky) it is innately programmed with grammatical rules
• grammar


  rules of a language, specifying how to use stuff to make other stuff make sense
• morphemes


  meaningful units of language that make up words
• concepts


  mental representations of categories of items or ideas based on experience
• prototype


  ideal or most representative example of a conceptual category
• schema


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


  problem-solving procedures or formulas
• heuristics


  cognitive strategies or "rules of thumb" used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks
• functional fixedness


  inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose
• hindsight bias


  tendency, after learning about an event, to "second guess" that one could have predicted the events
• working memory


  combines STM and LTM
• Insight


  a sudden realization of a solution