Terry 12 Flashcards
experimental approach
manipulating variables to determine their effects on learning (for general principles)
correlational approach
variables you can’t control and how they correlate to learning (for learning about individuals)
selective breeding
animals of similar learning ability are bred together over several generations to produce specific traits
twins method
measure similarity of identical twins vs fraternal twins on a certain dimension
childhood amnesia
humans can’t recall episodic memories from before about age 3- possibly because encoding varies between younger and older children, or because areas of the brain like the hippocampus aren’t fully developed yet, or memory span, existing knowledge, use of learning strategies, or metamemory
elicited imitation
experimenter does something and then encourages child to mimic it- kids as young as 11 months can do it, and as they get older they can do more than 2 actions in the series
self-recognition
when a child knows who the self is, measured by mirror tests- usually happens by age 4, relates to creation of autobiographical memories
semantic memory
fact retrieval- particularly hard for learning disabled students
S
memorized the Divine Comedy in Italian and a meaningless math formula and remembered both in a surprise test 15 years later
synesthesia
cross-modal perception: words provoke images, smells, tastes, tactile feelings
AJ
could remember something about every day of her life since age 11; not good at remembering word lists, nonsense drawings, or faces
functional brain imaging
memorists perform memory tests while their brain is scanned to see which areas light up
savant
someone with one exceptional cognitive ability and otherwise low general intelligence
