CHAPTER 1: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
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Control processes
The part of the standard or modal (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968, 1971) model of memory responsible for the active
manipulation of information in short-term memory (Ch. 1).
Channel capacity
An early analogy for the limited capacity of the human information-processing system (Ch. 1).
Response time
(RT) The elapsed time, usually measured in milliseconds, between some stimulus event and the subject’s
response to that event; a particularly common measure of performance in cognitive psychology ( Ch. 1).
Embodiment
The way we think about and process information reflects the fact that we need to interact with the world using our
bodies (Ch. 1).
Unconscious processing
Mental processing outside of awareness (Ch. 1).
Parallel processing
Any mental processing in which two or more processes or operations occur simultaneously ( Ch. 1).
Modal model of memory
The standard model of memory derived by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971), which is made of three primary
components: the sensory registers, the short-term store, and the long-term store (Ch. 1).
Memory
The mental processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval; the mental storage system
that enables these processes (Ch. 1).
Word frequency effect
Finding that frequent words in the language are processed more rapidly than infrequent words ( Ch. 1).
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Behaviorism
The movement or school of psychology in which the organism’s observable behavior was the primary topic of
interest; and the learning of new stimulus–response associations, whether by classical conditioning or by
reinforcement principles, was deemed the most important kind of behavior to study ( Ch. 1).
Representation
A general term referring to the way information is stored in memory. The term always carries the connotation that we are
interested in the format or organization of the information as it is stored (is the information stored in a semantic
representation? a sound-based representation?) (Ch. 1).
Cognition
The collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding, and
the act of using those processes (Ch. 1).
Cognitive science
A new term designating the study of cognition from the multiple standpoints of psychology, linguistics,
computer science, and the neurosciences (Chs. 1, 2).
Verbal learning
The branch of human experimental psychology, largely replaced by cognitive psychology in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, investigating the learning and retention of “verbal,” that is, language -based, stimuli; influenced directly
by Ebbinghaus’s methods and interests (Ch. 1).
Long-term memory
(LTM) The portion of the memory system responsible for holding information for more than a period of
seconds or minutes; virtually permanent storage of information (Ch. 1).
Top-down processing
See conceptually driven processing.
Empiricism
The philosophical position, originally from Aristotle, that advances observation and observation-derived data as
the basis for all science (Ch. 1).
Priming
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Mental activation of a concept by some means, or the spread of that activation from one concept to another; also,
the activation of some target information by action of a previously presented prime; sometimes loosely synonymous
with the notion of accessing information in memory (Chs. 1, 4, 7).
Metacognition
Awareness and monitoring of one’s own cognitive state or condition; knowledge about one’s own cognitive processes
and memory system (Chs. 1, 6).
Representation of knowledge
See representation.
Short-term memory
(STM) The component of the human memory system that holds information for up to 20 s; the memory component
where current and recently attended information is held; sometimes loosely equated with attention and consciousness
(Chs. 1, 5).
Cognitive psychology
An objective, empirical discipline that favors an experimental approach. The major assumptions are (1) mental
processes exist (vs. behaviorist perspective); (2) mental processes can be studied scientifically (vs. subjectivity of
introspective method); (3) people are active information processors (vs. passive recipients of knowledge and
experience) (Ch. 1).
Conceptually driven processing
(also top-down processing) Mental processing is said to be conceptually driven when it is guided and assisted by
the knowledge already stored in memory (contrast with data-driven processing) (Chs. 1, 3).
Process model
A stage model designed to explain the several mental steps involved in performance of some task, usually implying
that the stages occur sequentially and that they operate independently of one another ( Chs. 1, 5).
Cognitive revolution
The movement away from behaviorism to re-embrace the study of memory and mental activity (instinctive drift;
language; perception; judgment; decision making) (Ch. 1).
Verbal protocol
In studies of problem solving, a word-for-word transcription of what the subject said aloud during the problem-solving
attempt (Chs. 1, 10, 12).
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Sensory memory
The initial mental storage system for sensory stimuli. There are presumably as many modalities of sensory
memory as there are kinds of stimulation that we can sense (Ch. 1).
Ecological validity
The hotly debated principle that research must resemble the situations and task demands that are characteristic of
the real world rather than rely on artificial laboratory settings and tasks so that results will generalize to the real
world; that is, will have ecological validity (Ch. 1).
Independent and nonoverlapping stages
The assumption in the strict information processing approach that the stages of processing are independent of one
another in their functioning, and that they do not overlap in time. In other words, a stage begins its operations only when a
previous stage has finished, and those operations are not changed by previous or subsequent stages ( Ch. 1).
Tabula rasa
Latin term meaning “blank slate.” The term refers to a standard assumption of behaviorists that learning and
experience write a record on the blank slate; in other words, the assumption that learning, as opposed to
innate factors, is the most important factor in determining behavior (Ch. 1).
Sequential stages of processing
An assumption in most process models that the separate stages of processing occur in a fixed sequence,
with no overlap of the stages (Ch. 1).
Computer analogy
Human information processing may be similar to the sequence of steps and operations in a computer
program, similar to the flow of information from input to output when a computer processes information ( Ch.
1).
Lexical decision task
A simple yes/no task in which subjects are timed as they decide whether the letter string being presented is a word;
sometimes called simply the word/nonword task (Chs. 1, 7).
Accuracy
How correct a person is in the responses given; often quantified in terms of both number correct and
number incorrect. Separately, or paired with response time, it can give an indication of cognitive functioning
(Ch. 1).
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Serial processing
Mental processing in which only one process or operation occurs at a time (Ch. 1).
Encoding
To input or take into memory, to convert to a usable mental form, to store into memory. We are said to
encode auditory information into sensory memory; if that information is transferred to short -term memory,
then it is said to have been encoded into STM (Ch. 1).
Reductionism
The scientific approach in which a complex event or behavior is broken down into its constituents; the individual
constituents are then studied individually (Ch. 1).