Memory & Learning – Flashcards
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Absolute Threshold
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The smallest possible stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time, AKA the minimum level of stimuli that we can detect.
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Difference Threshold, or JND
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The smallest possible difference between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time.
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Sensory Adaptation
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Adjusting to the magnitude of a stimuli. Ex: there is a bad smell in a room, but you get used to it and no longer notice it.
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Visible Spectrum
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The narrow range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye.
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Cornea
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Transparent membrane that covers the outside of the eye; bends and focuses light.
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Iris
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Muscle that controls the amount of light entering the pupil; the colored part.
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Lens
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Thickens or thins to focus light onto the back of the eye.
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Accommodation
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The process by which the lens thickens or thins to focus light on back of the eye. To focus far away, it thins. To focus close up, it thickens.
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Fovea
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Vision is most accurate here.
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Blindspot
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Where the optic nerve leaves the eye.
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How do glasses correct visual problems?
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Glasses correct vision by intercepting and bending incoming light waves so that they are focused properly on the retina.
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Rods
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Peripheral and night vision (sensitive to light).
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Cones
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Color; requires more light. Far fewer in number than rods. Focused in the fovea.
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What is the path taken by light signals in the eye?
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Cornea, pupil, lens, retina.
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Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision
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3 types of cones: RED, GREEN, BLUE.
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Opponent Process Theory of Color Vision
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3 receptors/cones with opposites: Red/Green, Blue/Yellow, Black/White
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Afterimages
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Explained by Opponent Process theory. When you look at something long enough, then look away, you see it represented by opposite colors.
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Sound Waves
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Stimulus necessary for audition
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Amplitude
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Loudness. Represented by the height of a sound wave. Measured in dB.
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Frequency
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Pitch. Slower is lower, faster is higher. Represented by wavelength. Measured in Htz.
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Frequencies that humans can detect?
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Between 20 and 20,000 Htz.
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Outer Ear
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Contains the Pinna and Auditory Canal
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Middle Ear
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Contains the Tympanic Membrane (eardrum), 3 Ossicles, Oval Window
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Inner Ear
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Cochlea, Basilar Membrane (cilia inside)
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Pinna
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Floppy cartilage and skin attached to your head; funnels sound waves into the ear.
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Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum)
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Stretches across opening of ear canal. Sound waves hit it, and cause it to vibrate. Vibration transfers to 3 Ossicles.
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3 Ossicles
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Tiniest bones in the body. Hammer (malleus), Anvil (incus), and Stirrup (stapes). Vibration transfers to Oval Window.
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Oval Window
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Separates the middle ear from the inner ear. Vibration transfers to Cochlea.
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Cochlea (snail)
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Snail-shaped part of the inner ear. Vibration moves through fluid in the cochlea, then transfers to Basilar Membrane.
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Basilar Membrane
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Contains the receptor sites for sound (Cilia).
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Cilia
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Tiny hair cells; the receptor sites for sound.
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Sequence of parts of the ear that sound travels through?
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Pinna, ear canal, ear drum, hammer, anvil, stirrup, oval window, cochlea, basilar membrane, cilia.
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Place Theory of Pitch
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Different cilia respond to different frequencies. Explains frequencies above 1000 Htz.
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Frequency Theory of Pitch
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Sound waves cause cells to fire at the same frequency as the wave; but there is a limit to how quickly neurons can fire. Explains frequencies below 1000 Htz.
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Chemical stimuli are...
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involved in both olfactory and gustatory (taste) senses.
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The Limbic System regulates what?
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The emotional response to odors.
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JND
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Whether we can detect a change in the strength of a stimulus depends on the intensity of the original stimulus. Ex: two tiny pebbles vs. one heavy rock and one tiny pebble.
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What are the 5 primary tastes?
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Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (MSG).
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Gate-Control Theory of pain
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The sensation of pain is controlled by a series of 'gates' in the spinal cord.
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Vestibular Sense (body sense)
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The sense of balance and equilibrium (semicircular canals).
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Kinesthetic Sense (body sense)
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The sense of body movement; position of joints, muscle tension, etc. Ex: close your eyes and touch your toes.
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Figure-Ground relationship
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A perceptual principle, in which we automatically separate elements of a scene into an object and its background.
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Law of Proximity (Gestalt law)
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The tendency to group objects that are close to one another as a single unit.
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Law of Similarity (Gestalt law)
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The tendency to group similar-looking objects together.
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Law of Continuity (Gestalt law)
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The tendency to see the smoothest lines, rather than odd angles.
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Law of Closure (Gestalt law)
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The tendency to fill in missing pieces of commonly recognizable objects.
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Law of Common Fate (Gestalt law)
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The tendency to see things moving in the same direction to be more related than things that appear stationary or that move in a different direction.
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Relative Size (perceptual cue)
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Objects that appear to be largest will be judged to be the closest
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Monocular Cues
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Distance cues that require the use of only one eye. Ex: accommodation and artist cues.
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Binocular Cues
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Distance cues that require the use of two eyes to perceive depth. Ex: retinal disparity and convergence.
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Retinal Disparity
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Brain compares image on right retina to image on left retina. Compares the degree of difference between them.
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Convergence
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The angle your eye must converge to focus on an object.
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Visceral Sense (body sense)
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The sense of internal organs.
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Learning
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Relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to past experience.
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Conditioning
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Learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.
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Classical Conditioning
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A process of learning an association between two stimuli.
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Stimulus Generalization
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When you respond not only to the CS, but to other similar stimuli.
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Stimulus Discrimination
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When you can discriminate between the CS and other similar stimuli.
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Extinction
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Weakening and eventual disappearance of CR, because the CS no longer reliably predicts the UCR.
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Spontaneous Recovery
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Reappearance of CR after initial extinction.
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Classical Conditioning involves ______, while Operant Conditioning involves _______.
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Reflexive (involuntary) behaviors; Voluntary behaviors.
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Thorndike's Law of Effect
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Rewarded behaviors are more likely to be repeated, while unrewarded behaviors are less likely to be repeated.
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Skinner coined the term 'operant' to describe
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Active behaviors that operate on the environment to generate consequences.
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The basic idea of Operant Conditioning is that...
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Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.
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Primary Reinforcers
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Biological (food, drink, pleasure)
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Secondary Reinforcers
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These gain power through association with other secondary/primary reinforcers (money, grades, words of praise)
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Punishment is most effective if...
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It immediately follows an operant, and consistently follows the operant.
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Reinforcement ________ behavior, while Punishment ________ behavior.
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Increases; Decreases.
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Positive Reinforcement
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ADDS something positive as a reward for correct response/behavior.
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Negative Reinforcement
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REMOVES something aversive as a reward for correct response/behavior.
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Positive Punishment
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ADDS something negative for improper response/behavior.
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Negative Punishment
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REMOVES something positive for improper response/behavior.
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Punishment should....
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Be consistent, immediate, and fit the crime.
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Shaping
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Reinforcing successively closer approximations of behavior until the desired behavior is displayed.
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Partial reinforcement is to ____, as continuous reinforcement is to ________.
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Never; Always.
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What schedules of reinforcement are more resistant to extinction?
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Variable Ratio and Variable Interval
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Fixed Ratio
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Reinforced only after a specified number of responses.
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Variable Ratio
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Reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses.
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Fixed Interval
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Reinforced after a certain amount of time has passed.
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Variable Interval
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Reinforced after an unpredictable amount of time has passed.
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Learned Helplessness
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Exposure to inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events produces passive behavior.
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BOBO doll experiment...
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by Albert Bandura; showed the power of Observational Learning.
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Fundamental Processes of Memory
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Encoding, Storage, Retrieval
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Information-Processing Model of Memory
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Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory, and Long-Term Memory.
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Sensory Memory
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Stores exact replicas. Duration: 1 second. Capacity: limitless. Two kinds: Iconic and Echoic.
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Iconic Memory
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Visual; part of sensory memory.
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Echoic Memory
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Auditory; part of sensory memory.
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Short-Term Memory
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aka "working" memory. Attention is key. Duration: 30-60 seconds. Capacity: 7, +/- 2. If information is not further processed, it decays or fades.
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Chunking
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Strategy to help remember info, for STM.
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Maintenance Rehearsal
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Repetition; keep saying it, and you'll remember for a little while..
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Elaborative Rehearsal
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Key to going from STM to LTM.
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Memory
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The mental processes that enable us to acquire, retain, and retrieve information.
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Long-Term Memory
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Duration: limitless. Capacity: limitless. Retrieval can be difficult. Elaborative rehearsal necessary. We encode by semantics. 3 types: Semantic, Episodic, and Procedural.
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Semantic Memory
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LTM. General memory, ex: math facts. Part of Declarative memory
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Episodic Memory
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LTM. Personal knowledge, ex: your car crash. Part of Declarative memory
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Procedural Memory
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LTM. Skills and habits, ex: riding a bicycle.
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Declarative Memory
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LTM. Factual information; semantic and episodic are part of this. Also called "explicit" memory.
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Clustering
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Tendency to remember groups of related words within a list.
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Semantic Network Model
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Suggests that info in long-term memory is organized in a complex system of associations.
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Retrieval
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The process of accessing info stored in LTM.
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Essays are to _____, as matching tests are to _____.
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Free Recall; Cued Recall.
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Serial Position Effect
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Position in a list influences how well you remember something; primacy and recency effects.
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Primacy Effect
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When you remember items in the first part of a list.
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Recency Effect
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When you remember items at the end of a list.
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Mood Congruence
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Retrieval cue, and encoding specificity principle. Being in a certain mood makes you more likely to remember other things associated with that mood.
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Flashbulb Memory
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Remembering a memory exactly as it was.
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Forgetting
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Encoding-failure (poor attention/didn't understand) Storage-failure (shallow processing/disorganized) Retrieval-failure (poor retrieval cues: recall vs. recognition) Decay Interference Amnesia Repression/Suppresion
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Interference
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Proactive: old info interferes with remembering new info. Retroactive: new info interferes with remembering old info.
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Amnesia
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caused by trauma. Retrograde: can't recall former memories. Anterograde: can't form new memories.
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Which brain region is involved in retrieving/organizing info associated with episodic and autobiographical memories?
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The frontal lobe
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Cocktail Party Effect
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Part of selective attention.
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Nonselective Attention
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Repetition, intensity, and contrast automatically attract your attention.
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Types of effective elaborative rehearsal?
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Visualize terms and concepts. Explain material in own words. Relate info to what you already know. Relate info to examples in own life.
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Long-Term Potentiation
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Long-lasting increase in synaptic strength, associated with new memories/learning a new skill.
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Forgetting: definition
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The inability to recall info that was previously available to memory.
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Repression
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Unconscious forgetting; trauma-related. Freud likes this; psychologically threatening things from early childhood.
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Suppression
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Motivated/consciously, deliberately forgetting
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Memory Consolidation
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Gradual, physical process of converting new long-term memories into stable, enduring memory codes.
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