a rule that determines how inhibitory and excitatory connections combine to determine the total activation of a concept
activation rule
In Sperling’s model this store maintains verbal information in short-term memory through rehearsal.
auditory information store
an exaggeration of distinctive feartures to make a pattern more distinctive
caricature
a procedure in which observers have to specify which of two possible target patterns is present in a display
detection paradigm
a feature present in one pattern but absent in another, aiding one’s discrimination of the two patterns
distinctive feature
a positive association between concepts that belong together, as when a vertical line provides support for the possibility that a letter is K
excitatory connection
a theory of pattern recognition that describes patterns in terms of their parts, or features
feature theory
different three dimensional shapes that combine to form three dimensional patterns
geons
a negative association between concepts that do not belong together, as when the presence of a vertical line provides negative evidence that a letter is a C
inhibitory connection
a theory that proposes that both feature knowledge and word knowledge combine to provide information about the identity of letters in a word
interactive activation model
the amount of time between the end of a stimulus and the beginning of another stimulus.
interstimulus interval
a theory in which concepts (nodes) are linked to other concepts through excitatory and inhibitory connections
neural network model
the format for representing conepts in semantic network
nodes
when information is simultaneously collected from different sources and combined to reach a decision
parallel distributed processing (PDP)
carrying out more than one operation ata time, such as looking at an art exhibit and making conversation
parallel processing
a task in which observers are cued to report only certain items in a display of items
partial-report procedure
the stage of perception during which a stimulus is identified
pattern recognition
a measure of the frequency with which two patterns are mistakenly identified as each other
perceptual confusion
repeating verbal information to keep it active in short-term memory or to transfer it into long-term memory
rehersal
the attention component of Sperling’s model that determines what is recognized in the visual informaion store
scan component
the part of memory that hold unanalyzed sensory information for a fraction of a second, providing an opportunity for additinoal analysis following the physcial termination of stimulus
sensory store
carrying out one operatino at a time, such as pronouncing one word at a time
serial processing
a theory that specifies how the features of a pattern are joinded to other features of the pattern
structural theory
a box that presents visual stimuli at a specified duration and level of illumination
tachistoscope
an unanalyzed pattern that is matched against alternative patterns by using the degrees of overlap as a measure of similarity
template
a sensory store that maintains visual infomration for approximately one-quarter of a second
visual information store (VIS)
a task that requires observers to report everything they see ina display of items.
whole-report procedure
the finding that accuracy in recognizing a letter is higher when the letter isin a owrd than when it appears alone or isn a nonword
word superiority effect
when limited amount of capacity is distributed to various task.
allocation of capacity
a physiological state that influences the distribution of mentally capacity to various tasks.
arousal
a decrease in the perceived loudness of an unattended message.
attenuation
performing mental operations that require very little mental effort.
automatic processing
a theory that attempts to explain how people select information when some information processing stage become overloaded with too much information.
bottleneck theory
a theory that proposes that we have a limited amount of mental effort to distribute across tasks, so there are limitations on the number of tasks we can perfomr at the same time.
capacity theory
investing mental effort in one or mor task.
concentration
the influence of the surrounding context on the recognition of patterns.
contextual effect
an automatic influence where people direct their attention
enduring disposition
the proposition that bottleneck occurs at the pattern recognition stage and that attention determines what information reaches the pattern recognition stage.
filter model
learning that occurs when we do not make a conscious effort to learn
incidental learning
proposal that the bottleneck occurs when information is selected for memory
late-selection model
the pattern recognition stage of Broadbent’s model, which protected by the filter (attention) from becoming overloaded with too much perceptual information.
limited-capacity perceptual channel
the amount of mental capacity required to perform a task
mental effort
a conscious decision to allocate attention to certain task or aspects of te environment
momentary intention
a theory that proposes that people’s intentions and the demands of the task determine the information-processing stage at which information is selected
multimode theory
the selective aspects of attention we pay attention to some aspectsw of our environment and ignore other aspects
selectivity
an experimental method that requires people to repeat the attended message out loud
shadowing
the finding that it takes longer to name the color of theink a work is printed in when the word is the name of a competing color (for example, the word red printed in blue ink)
stroop effect
a task that typically measures how quickly people can react to target stimulus to evaluate the capcity demands of the primary task
subsidiary task
the minimal amount of activation required to become consciously aw3are of a stimulus
threshold
identifying stimuli that vary along a single, sensory continuum.
absolute judgment task
a memory code based on the sound of the stimulus
acoustic code
an error that sounds like the correct answer
acoustic confusion
a component of Baddeley’s working memory model that manages the use of working meory.
central executive
a cluster of items that has been stored as a unit
chunks
proposal that information is spontaneously lost over time, even when there is no interference from other material
decay theory
to create a visual or verbal code for a test item so it can be compared with the memory codes of items stored in short-term memory
encode
a search that continues until the test item is compared with all items in the memory set
exhaustive search
proposal that forgetting occurs because other material interferes with the information in memory
interference theory
substituting a word with similar meaning for one of the words in a sentence
lexical alteration
a set of items in short-term memory that can be compared against a test itme to determine if the test item is stored there
memory set
the number of correct items that people can immediately recall from a sequence of items
memory span
an integration of memory codes such as combining visual and verbal codes
multimodal code
using different words to express the same ideas in a sentence
paraphrase
any of the basic sounds of a language that are combined to form speech.
phoneme
a component of Baddeley’s working memory model that maintains and manipulates acoustic information
phonological loop
forgetting that occurs because of interference from material encountered before learning
proactive interference
reducing proactive interference by having information be dissimilar from earlier material
release from proactive interference
forgetting that occurs because of interferencefrom material encountered before learning
retroactive interference
to sequenctially compare a test item with items in short-term meomroy to determine if there’s a match
scan
a search that stops as soon as the test item is successfully matched to an item in the memory set
sefl-terminating search
changing the order of words in a sentence to change the meaning of the sentence
semantic alteration
a memory code based on the meaning of the stimulus
semantic code
a measure of how much response time changesfor each unit of change along the x-axis (memory-set size)
slope
silently speaking to oneslef
subvocalizing
a component of Baddely’s working memory model that maintains and manipulates viusual/spatial information
visuospatial sketchpad
the use of short-term memory as a temporary store of information needed to accomplish a particular task.
working memory
semantic elaboration of information to make it easier to remember
coding
the use of cognitively based retrieval techniques to imporove recall
cognitive interview
a process that is influenced by a person’s strategies
coneptually driven process
a strategy that determines how information is processed
control process
a process that is influenced by the stimulus material
data-driven process
a test that asks people to recall or recognize past events
direct memory test
memory of specific events, including when and where they occurred
episodic memory
memory evaluated by direct memory test
explicit memory
creating visual images to make material easier to remember.
imaging
memory evaluated by indirect memory tests
implicit memory
a test that does not explicitly ask about past events but is influenced by memory of past events
indirect memory test
storage of information in long-term memory
knowledge acquisition
memory that has no capacity limits and lasts from minutes to an entire lifetime.
long-term memory (LTM)
the selection of strategies for processing information
metacognition
a study of the tip-of the-tongue state in which people record these event as they occur outside the laboratory
naturalistic study
the better recall of words at the beginning of a list
primacy effect
facilitation in the detection or recognition of a stimulus by using prior information
priming
memory for actions, skills, and operations
procedural memory
the better recall of words at the end of a list
recency effect
deciding whether an item haad preciously occurred ina specified context
recognition memory
repeating verbal information to keep it active in short-term memory or to transfer it into long-term memory
rehersal
the ease with wich an item can be recalled
retrieval fluency
a strategy for recalling infomraiton from long-term memory
retrieval strategy
learning by repetition rather than through understanding
rote learning
memory of general knowledge not associated with a particular context
semantic memory
the ability to recall words at the beginning and end of a list better than words in the middle of the list
serial position effect
a terieval that occurs without making a conscious effort to recall information
spontaneous retrieval
a retrieval state in which a person feels he or she knows the information but cannot immediately retieve it to approximate the behavior of neural networks in the brain
tip of the tounge (TOT)