Chapter 8

Question 1

Inference

Answer 1

refers to the logical interpretations and conclusions that were never part of the original stimulus material

Question 2

Semantic memory

Answer 2

our organized knowledge about the world

Question 3

Episodic Memory

Answer 3

contains information about events that happen to us (personal experiences)

Question 4

Category

Answer 4

a set of objects that belong together

Question 5

Concept

Answer 5

your mental representations of a category

Question 6

Situated Cognition Approach

Answer 6

we make use of information in the immediate environment or situation; as a result, our knowledge often depends on the context that surrounds us

Question 7

Prototype

Answer 7

the item that is the best, most typical example of a category; the ideal representative of this category

Question 8

Prototype Approach

Answer 8

you decide whether a particular item belongs to a category by comparing this item with a prototype

Question 9

Prototypicality

Answer 9

the degree to which members of a category are representative of their category

Question 10

Graded structure

Answer 10

categories begin with the most representative or prototypical members, and it continues on through the category’s nonprototypical members

Question 11

Typicality effect

Answer 11

occurs when people judge typical items (prototypes) faster than items that are not typical (nonprototypes)

Question 12

Semantic priming effect

Answer 12

people respond faster to an item if it was preceded by an item with similar meaning

Question 13

Family resemblance

Answer 13

no single attribute is shared by all examples of a concept; however, each example has at least one attribute in common with some other example of the concept

Question 14

Superordinate-level categories

Answer 14

higher-level or more general categories

Question 15

Basic-level categories

Answer 15

moderately specific

Question 16

Subordinate-level categories

Answer 16

lower-level or more specific categories

Question 17

Exemplar approach

Answer 17

argues that we first learn information about some specific examples of a concept; then we classify each new stimulus be deciding how closely it resembles all of those specific examples

Question 18

Exemplar

Answer 18

the term for each specific example of a concept stored in memory

Question 19

Network models

Answer 19

propose netlike organization of concepts in memory, with numerous interconnections

Question 20

Node

Answer 20

one unit located within a network (each concept is represented as a node that gets activated when one sees or hears the name of a concept)

Question 21

Spreading activation

Answer 21

activation of a node expands or spreads from one node to other connected nodes

Question 22

ACT-R

Answer 22

an acronym for “Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational” –this approach attempts to account for a wide variety of tasks

Question 23

Declarative knowledge

Answer 23

knowledge about facts and things

Question 24

Propositional network

Answer 24

a pattern of interconnected propositions

Question 25

Proposition

Answer 25

the smallest unit of knowledge that people can judge to be either true of false -propositions are abstract, and do not represent a specific set of words

Question 26

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach

Answer 26

proposes that cognitive processes can be represented by a model in which activation flows through networks that link together a large number of simple, neuron-like units

Question 27

Spontaneous generalization

Answer 27

using individual cases to draw inferences about general information -accounts for some of the memory errors and distortions we experience and can also help explain stereotyping

Question 28

Default assignment

Answer 28

a guess based on information from other similar people or objects

Question 29

Connection weights

Answer 29

The connections between these neuron-like units are weighted, and these connection weights determine how much activation one unit can pass on to another unit. As you learn more information, the values of these weights will change.

Question 30

Graceful degradation

Answer 30

The brain’s ability to provide partial memory

Question 31

What is Graceful degradation closely related to?

Answer 31

tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Question 32

Schema

Answer 32

a generalized, well-integrated knowledge about a situation, an event, or a person

Question 33

Schema Therapy

Answer 33

the clinician and the client may work together in order to explore the client’s core beliefs and create appropriate new, more helpful strategies

Question 34

Script

Answer 34

a common kind of schema that is a simple, well-structured sequence of events in a specific order; associated with a highly familiar activity

Question 35

Life script

Answer 35

a list of events that a person believes would be most important throughout their lifetime

Question 36

Boundary extension

Answer 36

refers to our tendency to remember having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was actually shown

Question 37

Abstraction

Answer 37

a memory process that stores the meaning of a message, rather than the exact words

Question 38

Verbatim memory

Answer 38

word-for-word recall

Question 39

False alarm

Answer 39

occurs when people “remember” an item that was not originally presented

Question 40

Constructive model of memory

Answer 40

people integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas. Later, they believe that they have already seen those complex sentences because they have combined the various facts in memory

Question 41

Pragmatic view of memory

Answer 41

people pay attention to the aspect of a message that is most relevant to their current goals

Question 42

Memory integration

Answer 42

our background knowledge encourages us to take in new information in a schema-consistent fashion; as a result, people may remember this schema-consistent information, even though it was not part of the original stimulus material

Question 43

Gender Stereotypes

Answer 43

beliefs and opinions that we associate with females and males

Question 44

Explicit memory task

Answer 44

directly instructs participants to remember information

Question 45

Implicit memory task

Answer 45

asks people to perform a cognitive task that does not directly ask for recall or recognition

Question 46

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Answer 46

based on the principle that people can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words