09. Memory, Attention, and Consciousness

Question 1

Consciousness

Answer 1

In perception, the experiencing of percepts or other mental events in such a manner that one can report on them to others.

Question 2

Memory stores

Answer 2

In cognitive psychology, hypothetical constructs that are conceived of as places where information is held in the mind.

Question 3

Control processes

Answer 3

The mental processes that operate on information in the memory stores and move information from one store to another. see attention, encoding, retrieval.

Question 4

Sensory memory

Answer 4

The memory trace that preserves the original information in a sensory stimulus for a brief period (less than 1 second for sights and up to 3 seconds for sounds) following the termination of the stimulus; it is experienced as if one is still sensing the original stimulus.

Question 5

Short-term store

Answer 5

Memory store that can hold a limited amount of information for a matter of seconds. Cognitive operations are executed in the short-term store and information can be maintained indefinitely in the short-term store through operations such as rehearsal.

Question 6

Working memory

Answer 6

The memory store that is considered to be the main workplace of the mind. Among other things, it is the seat of conscious thought and reasoning.

Question 7

Long-term memory

Answer 7

Information that is retained in the mind for long periods (often throughout life).

Question 8

Attention

Answer 8

The process that controls the flow of information from the sensory store into working memory. More broadly, any focusing of mental activity along a specific track, whether that track consists purely of inner memories and knowledge or is based on external stimuli.

Question 9

Encoding

Answer 9

The mental process by which long-term memories are formed.

Question 10

Retrieval

Answer 10

The mental process by which long-term memories are brought into working memory, where they become part of the flow of thought.

Question 11

Effortful processes

Answer 11

Cognitive processes that consume some of the information-processing system’s limited capacity and are hypothesized to (1) be available to conscious awareness, (2) interfere with the execution of other processes, (3) improve with practice, and (4) be influenced by individual differences in intelligence, motivation, or education.

Question 12

Automatic processes

Answer 12

Cognitive processes that require no mental effort (or mental space) for their execution and are hypothesized (1) to occur without intention and without conscious awareness, (2) not to interfere with the execution of other processes, (3) not to improve with practice, and (4) not to be influenced by individual differences in intelligence, motivation, or education.

Question 13

Stroop interference effect

Answer 13

Named after J. Ridley Stroop, the effect by which a printed color word (such as the word red) interferes with a person’s ability to name the color of ink in which the word is printed if the ink color is not the same as the color named by the word

Question 14

Dual-processing theories

Answer 14

Cognitive theories that propose that people have two general ways of processing information. Typically such theories propose that one form of thinking is on the automatic end of the information-processing continuum, with processing being fast, automatic, and unconscious, and the second way of thinking is placed on the effortful side of this continuum, with processing being slow, effortful, and conscious.

Question 15

Echoic memory

Answer 15

Sensory memory for the sense of hearing.

Question 16

Iconic memory

Answer 16

Sensory memory for the sense of vision

Question 17

Phonological loop

Answer 17

In Baddeley’s theory, a component of working memory responsible for holding verbal information.

Question 18

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 18

In Baddeley’s theory, a component of working memory responsible for holding visual and spatial information.

Question 19

Central executive

Answer 19

In Baddeley’s theory, a component of the mind responsible for coordinating all the activities of working memory and for bringing new information into working memory.

Question 20

Short-term memory span

Answer 20

The number of pronounceable items of information (such as single, randomly chosen digits) that a person can retain in short-term (working) memory at any given time.

Question 21

Executive functions

Answer 21

The processes involved in regulating attention and in determining what to do with information just gathered or retrieved from long-term memory.

Question 22

Memory

Answer 22

1. The mind’s ability to retain information over time. 2. Information retained in the mind over time.

Question 23

Explicit memory

Answer 23

The class of memory that can be consciously recalled and used to answer explicit questions about what one knows or remembers.

Question 24

Implicit memory

Answer 24

Memory that influences one’s behavior or thought but does not itself enter consciousness.

Question 25

Episodic memory

Answer 25

Explicit memory of past events (episodes) in one’s own life.

Question 26

Semantic memory

Answer 26

One’s storehouse of explicit general knowledge, that is, of knowledge that can be expressed in words and is not mentally tied to specific experiences in one’s own life. Semantic memory includes, but is not limited to, one’s knowledge of word meanings.

Question 27

Procedural memory

Answer 27

The class of implicit memory that enables a person to perform specific learned skills or habitual responses.

Question 28

Temporal-lobe amnesia

Answer 28

The loss in memory abilities that occurs as a result of damage to structures in the limbic system that lie under the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex.

Question 29

Infantile amnesia

Answer 29

The inability to remember events from infancy and early childhood.

Question 30

Chunking

Answer 30

A strategy for improving the ability to remember a set of items by grouping them mentally to form fewer items.

Question 31

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 31

Loss, due to injury to the brain, in ability to form new long-term memories for events that occur after the injury.

Question 32

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 32

Loss, due to injury to the brain, of long-term memories that had been formed before the injury.

Question 33

Associations

Answer 33

Concerning the mind, a link between two memories or mental concepts, such that recall of one tends to promote recall of the other.

Question 34

Retrieval cue

Answer 34

A word, phrase, or other stimulus that helps one retrieve a specific item of information from long-term memory.

Question 35

Association by contiguity

Answer 35

Aristotle’s principle that if two environmental events (stimuli) occur at the same time or one right after the other (contiguously), those events will be linked together in the mind.

Question 36

Association by similarity

Answer 36

Aristotle’s principle that objects, events, or ideas that are similar to one another become linked (associated) in the person’s mind (structure of memory), such that the thought of one tends to elicit the thought of the other.

Question 37

Schema

Answer 37

The mental representation of a concept; the information stored in long-term memory that allows a person to identify a group of different events or items as members of the same category.

Question 38

Scripts

Answer 38

A variety of schema that represents in memory the temporal organization of a category of event (such as the sequence of occurrences at a typical birthday party).

Question 39

Prospective memory

Answer 39

Remembering to do something in the future