Brain and Cognition
Junction that allows neurons to communicate
What is Synapse?
Ability to focus on a relevant event to the exclusion of all else
What is Preattentive Processing?
Becoming aware of something through the senses
What is Perception?
Relating items to what you already know increasing the capacity of short-term memory by storing items into groups
What is Chunking?
Memory that can be described to others if you are asked to recall it
What is Declarative Memory?
Packets of chemicals that fill the gaps between neurons when an electrical signal is transmitted via the axon
What is Neurotransmitters?
What is Focused Attentional Processing?
Extracting primitive or basic elements from a stimulus and creating a higher-level understanding of it
What is Bottom-Up Processing?
Hindrance that occurs when new information makes it difficult to remember previously learned information
What is Retroactive Interference?
Aspect of long-term memory that retains conceptual knowledge stored as an independent knowledge base containing discrete facts
What is Semantic Memory?
Split down the middle, from front to back, the brain contains two hemispheres, each serving different cognitive functions
What is Hemisphere?
Two brain circuits process information about the spatial location of objects and allow us to name them
What is Where/What circuits?
After a preliminary guess is made about a stimulus, the pattern recognition process reduces the set of possibilities by selecting only low-level features that merit further analysis in order to complete the identification
What is Top-Down Processing?
Interference that occurs when previously learned information inhibits the ability to remember new information
What is Proactive Interference?
Phenomenon that once facts are stored in long-term memory they endure for nearly lifetime
What is Permastore?
Area of the cortex that does the complex job of processing signals from the eyes
What is Occipital Lobe?
Cognitive ability to focus or sharpen attention on a previously peripheral stimulus
What is Attentional Spotlight?
Perception of a stimulus is organized into a figure as possible, called a "good" figure by Gestalt psychologists
What is the Principle of Pragnanz?
Thinking about meaningful relationships among items to be learned and focusing on how they connect to other things around you
What is Elaborative Rehearsal?
Word meaning stored as collections of meaning elements
What is Semantic Features?
Hypothesis that different functions of thought are performed by different areas in the brain
What is Localization Function?
Basic biological reaction to turn our attention to any change in the environment
What is Orienting Reflex?
Pattern recognition process that identifies features of 3-D objects
What is Recognition by Components Theory?
Examining every item in short-term memory in its entirety and continuing to search even after the items in the middle of a list
What is Serial Exhaustive Research?
Awareness of your memory system and what resides there
What is metamemory?