Memory

Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Memory Process

1. Encoding: The processing of information into the memory system

• Ex: typing info into a computer, getting a girl's name at a party

     2. Storage: the retention of encoded material over time

•   Ex: pressing ctrl s and saving the info, trying to remember her name when you leave the party

     3. Retrieval: the process of getting the information out of memory storage

• finding your document and opening it up, seeing her the next day and calling her the wrong name (retrieval failure)

Recall: you must retrieve the information from your memory (fill in the blanks)

Recognition: you must identify the target from possible targets (multiple choice tests)

Flashbulb memory; a clear moment if an emotionally significant moment or event

Sensory memory: the immediate, initial recording if sensory information in the memory system
-stored just for an instant, and most gets unprocessed
-lasts up to a half a second for visual, it lasts 2-4 seconds for auditory, the capacity of storage is large and any information that is not transferred is lost

Short term memory: memory that holds a few items briefly
-seven digits (plus of minus two)
-the info will be stored into long term or forgotten
-aka working memory
-it has a limited capacity

Working memory has three parts
1. Audio
2. Visual
3. Integration of audio and visual (controls where your attention lies)

Long term memory: permanent and limitless storehouse

Encoding: getting the information in our heads

Two ways to encode information
-automatic processing: unconscious encoding of incidental information, you encode space, time and word meaning without effort, things can become automatic with practice
-effortful processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort, rehearsal is the most common effortful processing technique, through enough rehearsal, what was effortful becomes automatic 

Language

Language: our spoken, written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate

Phonemes: in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morphemes: in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning
-can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix)

Grammar: a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others

Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language
-adding ed at the end of words means past tense

Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences
-in English, adjectives come before nouns but not in Spanish

Language development.

Babbling stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to the phonemes of the infant's household language

One word stage: 1-2 years old, used one word to communicate big meanings

Two word stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings-called telegraphic speech

Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory

Chomsky
Inborn universal grammar
-we acquire language too quickly for it to be learned
-we have this "learning box" inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language

Whorf's linguistic relativity: the idea that language determined the way we think (not vice versa)

Perception

Perception: the process of organizing and interpreting information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Visual capture: the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses

Gestalt psychology: Gestalt means an "organized whole" these psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate prices of information into meaningful wholes
-the whole is greater than the sum of its part

Figure ground relationship: the organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups that we understand

Proximity: we group nearby figures together

Similarity: we group similar figures together

Continuity: we group continuous patterns together

Connectedness: we group together uniform and linked figures

Depth perception: the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional
-allow us to judge distance

Binocular cues: depth cues that depend on two eyes

Retina disparity: a binocular cue for seeing depth
-the closet an object comes to you the greater the disparity is between the two images

Monocular cues: depth cues that depend on one eye

Interposition: if something is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer

Relative size: if we know that two objects are similar in size, the one that looks smaller is farther away

Relative clarity: we assume hazy objects are farther away

Texture gradient: the coarser it looks, the closer it is

Relative height: things higher in out field of vision, they look farther away

Relative motion: things that are closer appear to move more quickly

Linear perspective: parallel lines seems to converge with distance

Light and Shadow: dimmer objects appear farther away because they reflect less light

Phi phenomenon: an allusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession
-ex; christmas lights

Perceptual consistency: perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images  changes

Touch

Receptors located in our skin

Gate control theory of pain: the nervous system blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain

Vestibular sense:

• tells us where our body is oriented in space
• our sense of balance
• located in our semicircular canals in our ears

Kinesthetic sense: 

• tells us where are body part are
• receptors located in our muscles and joints

Smell and Taste

Sensory interaction: the principle that one sense may influence another

Taste and smell are chemical senses

Papillae: those bumps on our tongue

-help grip food while your teeth are chewing. They also have another special job-they contain your taste buds

Sweet: located on the tip of the tongue and it is since when our taste buds come in contact with it

Salty: sensed when sensitive taste buds come in contact with salt, located on the front side of the tongue

Sour: sensed when our taste buds comes into contact with acid, located on back side of tongue

Bitter: sensed when our taste buds come in contact with an alkaline chemical, located on base of the tongue

Spicy: sensed when the nocio receptors in our mouth come into contact with a chemical that irritates them

Pheromones: chemical messengers that are picked up through our sense of smell

-found in the early 1930s by studying silkworms

Hearing

Frequency: the number of complete wavelengths that pass through a point at a given time. This determines the pitch of a sound

Amplitude: how loud the sound is. The higher the crest if the wave is the louder the sound is. it is measured in decibels

Helmholtz place theory: we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different places among the cochlea's basilar membrane

Frequency theory: we sense pitch by the basilar membrane vibrating at the same rate as the sound

Conduction hearing loss: caused by damage to mechanical system of ear

Sensorineural hearing loss: caused by damage to cochlea's receptor cells or to auditory nerves

Sensation and Perception

Sensation: your window to the world
-Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment

Perception: interpreting what comes in your window
-perception is essentially an interpretation and elaboration of sensation. Therefore, a sensation refers to the initial steps in the processing of a stimulus
-the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Bottom-up processing: analysis that beings with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Top-down processing: information processing guided by higher level mental processes
-we when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Absolute threshold: the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

Difference threshold
-the minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli
-also known as just noticeable disease

Weber's law: the idea that to perceive different two stimuli they must differ

Signal detection theory:
-we detect a stimulus and other stimuli
-assumes that we do not have an absolute threshold
-we detect stuff based on our experiences, new motivations and fatigue level

Transduction: transforming signals into neural impulses. Information does from the senses to the thalamus. Then to the various areas of the brain
-conversion of one form of energy to another

Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimuli

Selective attention: focused of conscious awareness in a particular way

Cocktail party effect: ability to listen to notice among many

Wavelength: the distance from the peak of one light wave to the peak of the next
-the distance determines the hue (color) of the light we perceive

Short wavelength = high frequency

Intensity: the amount of energy in a light wave. Determined by the height of the wave; the higher the wave the more intense the light is

Parallel Processing: the processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneuously

•  color
• motion
• form
• depth

Young-helmholtz trichromatic (three color) theory: realized that any color can be created by combining the light waves of three primary colors: red, green, blue

Rods facilitate black and white vision

Cones facilitates color vision

Opponent process theory: we cannot see certain colors together in combination (red green, blue yellow, and white black) these are antagonist/opponent colors