chap 5 key terms

Question 1

acronym

Answer 1

Acronym- an abbreviation formed from the first letters of each word in a title or procedure that can be pronounced as a word (e.g. ANZAC); can include initialisms that cannot be pronounced as words (e.g. FBI).

Question 2

acrostic

Answer 2

Acrostic- a poem, word puzzle or other composition in which initial letters in each line form a word or words that the composition is about; or, a memorable phrase in which the first letter of a term in a sequence of terms to be remembered.

Question 3

alzheimers disease (AD)

Answer 3

Alzheimer’s disease (AD)- a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative brain disease in which amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles disrupt neural functions, causing cell death and atrophy of the brain; early hippocampal damage disrupts consolidation of explicit memory first followed by progressive loss of existing episodic and semantic memories due to neocortical damage.

Question 4

amygdala

Answer 4

Amygdala- An almond shaped brain structure located within each temporal lobe in front of the hippocampus; associates emotional information with explicit memories; plural amygdalae.

Question 5

aphantasia

Answer 5

Aphantasia- The term used to describe people who experience reduced or absent voluntary mental imagery.

Question 6

autobiographical memory (ABM)

Answer 6

Autobiographical memory (ABM)- the component of explicit memory that represents our episodic memories of personally experienced evens and semantic self-knowledge.

Question 7

basal ganglia

Answer 7

Basal ganglia- a group of brain structures located at the base of the forebrain and in the midbrain that play important roles in controlling voluntary movement.

Question 8

brain imaging studies

Answer 8

Brain imaging studies- studies that use imaging techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain structure and function.

Question 9

brain legion study

Answer 9

Brain lesion study- a brain research technique in which patients with damage (lesions) to a specific region of the brain are studied to determine the effects of the lesion on behaviour and cognition; can include post-mortem dissection and structural and functional brain imaging of living patients.

Question 10

cerebellum

Answer 10

Cerebellum- the major hindbrain structure; it controls movement, balance and coordination; and affects cognitive function by regulating the speed, consistency and appropriateness of mental processes.

Question 11

cerebral cortex

Answer 11

Cerebral cortex- The layers of grey matter that cover the outside of the cerebral hemispheres, consisting mostly of the neocortex; it includes multiple distinct functional regions associated with the higher cognitive processes of attention, thought, perception, memory and language as well as sensory-motor processing; also called telencephalon.

Question 12

encoding

Answer 12

Encoding- the processing of information in short-term memory to transfer it to long-term memory.

Question 13

episodic autobiographical memory (EAM)

Answer 13

Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM)- the component of explicit long-term memory used for storing and retrieving memories of personally experienced events and for imagining ourselves experiencing future events; accompanied by the feeling of mental time travel; also called episodic memory.

Question 14

explanatory power

Answer 14

Explanatory power- the ability of a model or theory to explain the phenomenon of interest.

Question 15

explicit memory

Answer 15

Explicit memory (declarative memory)- the kind of long-term memory we use when consciously remembering information about facts (semantic memory) or events (episodic memory).

Question 16

hippocampus

Answer 16

Hippocampus- an organ deep in the temporal lobe that is involved in encoding, storing and retrieving explicit memories, and in particular the consolidation of episodic memories.

Question 17

implicit memory

Answer 17

Implicit memory (non-declarative memory)- the kind of long-term memory that is demonstrated through changes in behaviour and adaptive responses as a result of repetition or practice, without conscious recollection of the knowledge that underlies the performance; can operate independently of the hippocampus.

Question 18

long term memory (LTM)

Answer 18

Long-term memory (LTM)- The set of memory storage systems that enables us to store and retrieve knowledge and skills acquired over a lifetime with apparently unlimited capacity.

Question 19

mental imagery

Answer 19

Mental imagery- the conscious experience of perception-like representations without corresponding sensory input.

Question 20

method of loci

Answer 20

Method of loci- a mnemonic technique in which the items to be remembered are associated with specific locations on a familiar route or within a building or landscape, or even the night-sky.

Question 21

mnemonic

Answer 21

Mnemonic- any device or technique used to assist encoding, storage and retrieval of memories; usually by creating an association between information to be remembered and existing knowledge; also called memory-aid.

Question 22

multi store model of memory

Answer 22

Multi-store model of memory- the model of human memory systems and processes descried by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), including the 3 memory storage systems of sensory, short-term and long-term memory and the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval.

Question 23

neocortex

Answer 23

Neocortex- the largest structure of the cerebral cortex, comprising 80% of cortical grey matter other than the allocortex; modified through learning throughout life with specialised regions for higher cognitive functions involved in attention, thought, and language and sensory-motor processing.

Question 24

oral cultures

Answer 24

Oral cultures- human cultural groups who use methods other than written language to store and pass down knowledge.

Question 25

retrieval

Answer 25

Retrieval- the process of bringing to mind knowledge of events or facts stored in explicit memory, or of initiating and executing an implicit procedural memory.

Question 26

semantic memory

Answer 26

Semantic memory- the component of explicit long-term memory that we use when we encode, store and retrieve factual and conceptual knowledge, and to recognise objects, people or places; accompanied by awareness of knowing without a feeling of reliving the past.

Question 27

sensory memory

Answer 27

Sensory memory- the set of temporary memory stores with large capacity that enable sensory information to persist for a very brief duration so that goal-relevant information can be attended and encoded into short-term memory; includes iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) sensory memory.

Question 28

short term memory (STM)

Answer 28

Short-term memory (STM)- a temporary memory store that represents information that is the current focus of attention, with limited capacity (5-9 items with an average of 7) and a duration of several seconds or for as long as information can be actively rehearsed.

Question 29

song lines

Answer 29

Song lines- the sung narratives encoded in physical routes across Country and in constellations in the night-sky that convey ancestral knowledge of Country; also known as song-spirals or Dreaming.

Question 30

storage

Answer 30

Storage- the retention of information in memory over time.