5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology 2019

Cognition ❮ 155

memory (memory of general knowledge or objective facts) and episodic memory

(memory of personally experienced events).

• Implicit memory (nondeclarative)—retention without conscious recollection
  of learning the skills and dispositions. Implicit memory includes procedural
  memory—memories of perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills.

Four major models account for organization of information in LTM:

1 .  Hierarchies—systems in which concepts are arranged from more general to more

specific classes.

1. Concepts—mental representations of related things.

1 .  Prototypes—the most typical examples of a concept.

2 .  Semantic networks—more irregular and distorted systems than strict hierarchies,

with multiple links from one concept to others.

3 .  Schemas—frameworks of basic ideas and preconceptions about people, objects, and

events based on past experience.

3. Script—a schema for an event.

4 .  Connectionism—theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in con-

nections between neurons, many of which can work together to process a single

memory.

Artificial intelligence (AI)—a field of study in which computer programs are designed
to simulate human cognitive abilities such as reasoning, learning, and understanding
language.

Neural network or parallel processing model—clusters of neurons that are intercon-
nected (and computer models based on neuronlike systems) and process information
simultaneously, automatically, and without our awareness.

Long-term potentiation or LTP—an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after
brief, rapid stimulation and possibly the neural basis for learning and memory,
involving an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses
within neural networks.

The biology of memory:

• The thalamus is involved in encoding sensory memory into STM.


• The hippocampus is involved in putting information from STM into LTM.


• The amygdala is involved in the storage of emotional memories.


• The cerebellum processes implicit memories and seems to store procedural memory
  and classically conditioned memories.


• The basal ganglia process implicit memories.

Retrieval—the process of getting information out of memory storage. Key terms and
concepts associated with retrieval include:

• Retrieval cue—a stimulus that provides a trigger to get an item out of memory.


• Priming—activating specific associations in memory either consciously or
  unconsciously.