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Memory and Cognition
Cognitive Psychology
Question | Answer |
---|---|
artificial intelligence (AI) | The attempt by humans to construct systems that show intelligence and, particularly, the intellegent processing of inforamtion; intellegence in symbol-processing systems such as computers. |
associationism | examines how events or ideas can becoe associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning. |
behaviorism | a theoretical outlook that psycology should focus only on the relation between observable behavior, on the one hand, and environmental events or stimuli, on the other. |
cognitive psychology | the study of how people percieve, learn, remember, and think about information. |
cognitive science | a cross-diciplinary field that uses ideas an methods from cognitive psychology, psychobioogy, artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology. |
cognitivism | the believe that much human behavior can be understood in terms of how people think. |
dependant variables | a response that is measuredand is presumed to be the effect of one or more independant variables. |
ecological validity | the degree to which particular findings in one environmental context may be considered relevant outside the context. |
empiricist | one who believes that we aquire knowledge via empirical evidence. |
functionalism | seeks to understand what people do and why they do it. |
Gestalt Psychology | states that we best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as organized, structured wholes. |
hypotheses | tentative proposals regardin expected empirical consequences of the theory. |
independant variables | a variable that is varied or purposefully manipulated and that affect one or more dependant variables. |
intelligence | the capacity to learn from experience, using metacognitive processes to enhance learning, and the ability to adapt to the surrounding environment. |
introspection | looking inward at pieces of information passing through consciousness. |
pragmatists | ones who believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness. |
rationalist | one who believes that the route to knowledge is through logical analysis. |
statistical significance | indicates the likelihood that a given set of results would be obtained if only chance factors were in operation. |
structuralism | seeks to understand the structure (configuration of elements) of the mind and its peceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components. |
Theory | an organzied body of general explanitory principles regarding a phenomenon. |
Theory of Multiple intelligences | belief that intellegence comprises multiple independant constructs, not just a single, unitary construct. |
tree-stratum model of intelligence | 1) man narrow, specific abilities 2) various broad abilities 3) general intelligence |
triarcic theory of human intelligence | belief that intelligence comprises 3 aspects, dealing with the relation of intelligence 1) to the internal world of the person 2) to experience 3) to the external world. |
amygdala | plays an important role in emotion, especially in anger and aggression. |
axon | the part of the neuron through which intraneuronal conduction occurs (via the action potential) and at the terminus of which is located the terminal buttons that release neurotransmitters. |
brain | the organ in our bodies that most directly controls our thoughts, emotions, and motivations. |
brainstem | connects the forebrain to the spinal cord. |
cerebellum | controls bodily coordination, balence, and muscle tone, as well as some aspects of memory involving procedure-related movements; from Latin "little brain". |
cerebral cortex | forms a 1-3 mm layer that wraps the surface of the brain somewhat like the bark of the tree wraps around the trunk. |
cerebral hemispheres | the two halves of the brain. |
cognitive neuroscience | the field of study linking the brain and other aspects of the nervous system to cognitive processing and, ultimately, to behavior. |
contralateral | from one side to another. |
corpus callosum | a dense aggregate of neural fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. |
dendrites | the branch-like structures of each neuron that extend into synapses with other neurons that recieve neurochemical messages sent into synapses by other neurons. |
electroencephalograms (EEGs) | recordings of the electrical frequencies and intensities of the living brain, usually recorded over long periods. |
event-related potential | an electrophysiological response to a stimulus, whether internal or external. |
frontal lobe | associated with motor processing and higher thought processes, such as abstract reasoning. |
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) | a neuroimaging technique tht uses magnetic fields to construct a detailed representation in 3 dimensions of levels of activity in various parts of the brain at a given moment. |
hippocampus | plays an essential role in memory formation |
hypothalamus | regulates behavior related to species survival: fighting, feeding, fleeing, and mating; also active in regulating emotions and reactions to stress. |
ipsilateral | on the same side |
Korsakoff's syndrome | produces loss of memory function. |
limbic system | importnt to emotion, motivation, memory, and learning. |
lobes | divide the cerebral hemispheres and cortex into four parts. |
localization of function | refers to the specific areas of the brain that control specific skills of behaviors. |
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan | a technique for revealing high-resolution images of the structure of the living brain by computing and analyzing magnetic changes in the energy of the orbits of nuclear particles in the molecules of the body. |