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Chapter 5
The Human Puzzle Chapter 5 Study Material
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Amnesiacs | Those who experience partial or total loss of memory, sometimes resulting from head trauma. |
Autobiographical Memory | A type of declarative memory consisting of knowledge about personal experiences, tied to specific times and places. |
Central Executive System | In Baddeley’s model of working memory, the system concerned with regulating the flow of information from sensory storage, processing it for long-term storage, and retrieving it from long-term storage. |
Chunking | A memory process whereby related items are grouped together into more easily remembered “chunks” (for example, a prefix and four digits for a phone number, rather than seven unrelated digits). |
Declarative Memory | Explicit, conscious long-term memory; may be either semantic or episodic. |
Distortion Theory | A theory of forgetting that recognizes that what is remembered is often changed or reconstructed. |
Dizygotic Twins | Twins that result from two separate eggs and that are therefore fraternal (nonidentical). |
Elaboration | A memory strategy that involves forming new associations, linking with other ideas or images. |
Encoding | As a memory process, changing sensations or other input to makemental representations. |
Event-Related Field (ERF) | A measure of magnetic fields at the scalp relating to neural activity typically associated with specific stimuli. |
Event-Related Potential (ERP) | A measure of electrical activity in identifiable areas of the brain, corresponding to specific stimuli. |
Explicit Memory | Another label for declarative memory |
Fading Theory | The belief that the inability to recall long-term memories increases with the passage of time as memory traces fade. Also termed decay theory. |
False Memory Syndrome | Describes the possibility that a memory—especially of a highly traumatic event—may be a memory of something that has not actually occurred. |
Flashbulb Memories | Unusually vivid and persistent recollections of the details surrounding first learning about an event that is highly emotionally significant. |
Flynn Effect | The observation that there are gains in measured IQ over generations. |
Forgetting | Loss from memory over time; contrasted with extinction, which occurs as a result of cessation of reinforcement. |
Group test | A type of test usually used to measure intelligence that may be given to large groups at one time. |
Implicit memory | Also called nondeclarative memory. Refers to the memories that cannot be verbalized—for example, how to stay upright on a bicycle. |
Individual test | A test, usually used to measure intelligence, that can be given to only one individual at a time. |
Intelligence quotient (IQ) | A mathematical representation of “intelligence” in which average performance is around 100. |
Link system | A mnemonic system that requires forming linked visual images of what is to be recalled. |
Loci system | A mnemonic system in which images of items to be recalled are “placed” in familiar locations. |
Long-term memory (LTM | A type of memory where material is processed so that it remains available for recall over a long period. |
Memory | The ability to retain and retrieve recollections of past events and information. |
Mnemonic aids | Systematic aids to remembering, like rhymes, acrostics, or visual imagery systems. |
Mnemonist | Professional memorizer. |
Modal Model of Memory | A widely accepted model of memory that describes three types of storage: sensory, short-term, and long-term. |
Monozygotic Twins | Twins resulting from the division of a single fertilized egg— hence identical twins. |
Nondeclarative Memory | Unconscious, nonverbalizable effects of experience such as might be manifested in acquired motor skills or in classical conditioning. |
Nonsense Syllables | Meaningless combinations of vowels and consonants, like gar, lev, and kur, often used to study memory. |
Normal Distribution | A probability distribution that takes the form of a symmetrical bell-shaped graph and that describes the expected distribution of many events and characteristics. |
Organization | A memory strategy involving grouping items to be remembered in terms of similarities and differences. |
Phonetic System | A powerful mnemonic system in which previously learned associations between numbers and mental images are used to recall large numbers of items forward, backward, or in any order. |
Phonological Loop | In Baddeley’s model of working memory, one of the slave systems responsible for maintaining verbal information, such as words or numbers, in consciousness. |
Proactive Interference | When earlier learning interferes with the recall of subsequent learning. |
Rehearsal | A memory strategy involving simple repetition, the principal means of maintaining items in short-term memory. |
Reliability | The consistency with which a test measures whatever it measures. |
Repression | A Freudian term for the process by which intensely negative or frightening experiences are lost from conscious memory. |
Retrieval Cues | Stimuli like sounds, words, locations, smells, and so on that facilitate recall (that remind the individual of something). |
Retrieval-Cue Failure | Inability to remember due to the unavailability of appropriate cues. |
Retroactive Interference | When subsequently learned material interferes with the recall of previously learned material. |
Semantic Memory | A type of declarative (conscious, long-term) memory consisting of stable knowledge about the world, principles, rules and procedures, and other verbalizable aspects of knowledge, including language. |
Short-Term Memory (STM) | A memory stage in which material is available for recall for a matter of seconds; defines our immediate consciousness. |
Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence | Sternberg’s view that intelligence involves analytical, creative, and practical abilities, as well as skill in selecting and shaping environments to maximize adaptation. |
Validity | The extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure. |
Visual-Spatial Sketch Pad | One of the slave systems in Baddeley’s model of working memory, concerned with the processing of material that is primarily visual or spatial. |
Working Memory | The Baddeley model describing how information is processed in short-term memory by means of a control system (central executive system) and systems that maintain verbal material (phonological loop) and visual material (visual-spatial sketch pad). |