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184 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Artificial intelligence
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Involves developing computer programs that produce intelligent outcomes; see computational modeling.
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Association
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Concerning brain damage, the finding that certain symptoms or performance impairments are consistently found together in numerous brain-damaged patients.
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Back-propagation
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A learning mechanism in connectionist networks based on comparing actual responses to correct ones.
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BOLD
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Blood oxygen-level dependent contrast; this is the signal that is measured by fMRI.
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Bottom-up processing
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Processing that is directly influenced by environmental stimuli; see top-down processing.
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Regarding processing, which type is internally driven and which type is externally driven?
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Top-down is internally-driven and bottom-up is externally-driven.
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Cognitive neuropsychology
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An approach that involves studying cognitive functioning in brain-damaged patients to increase our understanding of normal human cognition.
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Cognitive neuroscience
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An approach that aims to understand human cognition by combining information from behavior and the brain.
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Cognitive psychology
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An approach that aims to understand human cognition by the study of behavior.
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Computational cognitive science
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An approach that involves constructing computational models to understand human cognition. Some of these models take account of what is known about brain functioning as well as behavioral evidence.
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Computational modeling
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This involves constructing computer programs that will simulate or mimic some aspects of human cognitive functioning; see artificial intelligence.
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Connectionist networks
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These consist of elementary units or nodes, which are connected; each network has various structures or layers (e.g., input; intermediate or hidden; output).
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Converging operations
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An approach in which several methods with different strengths and limitations are used to address a given issue.
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Cytoarchitectonic map
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A map of the brain based on variations in the cellular structure of tissues.
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Dissociation
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As applied to brain-damaged patients, normal performance on one task combined with severely impaired performance on another task.
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Domain specificity
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The notion that a given module or cognitive process responds selectively to certain types of stimuli (e.g., faces) but not others.
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Double dissociation
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The finding that some individuals (often brain-damaged) do well on task A and poorly on task B, whereas others show the opposite pattern.
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Ecological validity
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The extent to which experimental findings are applicable to everyday settings.
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Electroencephalogram (EEG)
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A device for recording the electrical potentials of the brain through a series of electrodes placed on the scalp.
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Event-related potentials
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The pattern of electroencephalograph (EEG) activity obtained by averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus presented repeatedly.
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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
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A technique based on imaging blood oxygenation using an MRI machine; it provides information about the location and time course of brain processes.
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Functional specialization
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The assumption that each brain area or region is specialized for a specific function (e.g., color processing; face processing).
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Lesions
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Structural alterations within the brain caused by disease or injury.
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Magneto-encephalography
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A non-invasive brain-scanning technique based on recording the magnetic fields generated by brain activity.
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Modularity
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The assumption that the cognitive system consists of several fairly independent processors or modules.
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Paradigm specificity
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This occurs when the findings obtained with a given paradigm or experimental task are not obtained even when apparently very similar paradigms or tasks are used.
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Parallel processing
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Processing in which two or more cognitive processes occur at the same time; see serial processing.
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Positron emission tomography
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A brain-scanning technique based on the detection of positrons; it has reasonable spatial resolution but poor temporal resolution.
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Production rules
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“IF … THEN” or condition–action rules in which the action is carried out whenever the appropriate condition is present.
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Production systems
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These consist of numerous “IF … THEN” production rules and a working memory containing information.
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
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The administration of transcranial magnetic stimulation several times in rapid succession.
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Serial processing
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Processing in which one process is completed before the next one starts; see parallel processing.
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Single-unit recording
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An invasive technique for studying brain function, permitting the study of activity in single neurons.
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Syndromes
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Labels used to categorize patients on the basis of co-occurring symptoms.
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Top-down processing
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Stimulus processing that is influenced by factors such as the individual’s past experience and expectations.
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Transcranial magnetic stimulation
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A technique in which magnetic pulses briefly disrupt the functioning of a given brain area, thus creating a short-lived lesion; when several pulses are administered one after the other, the technique is known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
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Affordances
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The potential uses of an object, which Gibson claimed are perceived directly.
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Change blindness
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Failure to detect changes in the visual environment.
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Focus of expansion
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This is the point towards which someone who is in motion is moving; it is the only part of the visual field that does not appear to move.
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Ideomotor apraxia
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A condition caused by brain damage in which patients have difficulty in carrying out learned movements.
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Inattentional blindness
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Failure to detect an unexpected object appearing in a visual display; see change blindness.
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Invariants
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Properties of the optic array that remain constant even though other aspects vary; part of Gibson’s theory.
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Mirror neuron system
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A system of neurons that respond to actions whether performed by oneself or by someone else.
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Optic array
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The structured pattern of light falling on the retina
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Optic flow
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The changes in the pattern of light reaching an observer when there is movement of the observer and/or aspects of the environment.
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Retinal flow field
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The changing patterns of light on the retina produced by movement of the observer relative to the environment as well as by eye and head movements.
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Resonance
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The process of automatic pick-up of visual information from the environment in Gibson's theory.
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Tangent point
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From a driver’s perspective, the point on a road at which the direction of its inside edge appears to reverse.
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Texture gradients
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The rate of change of texture density from the front to the back of a slanting object.
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Visual direction
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The angle between a visual object or target and the front–back body axis.
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Attentional blink
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A reduced ability to detect a second visual target when it follows closely the first visual target.
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Covert attention
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Attention to an object or sound in the absence of overt movements of the relevant receptors (e.g., looking at an object in the periphery of vision without moving one’s eyes).
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Cross-modal attention
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The co-ordination of attention across two or more modalities (e.g., vision and audition).
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Divided attention
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A situation in which two tasks are performed at the same time; also known as multitasking.
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Endogenous spatial attention
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Attention to a given spatial location determined by voluntary or goal-directed mechanisms; see exogenous spatial attention.
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Exogenous spatial attention
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Attention to a given spatial location determined by “involuntary” mechanisms triggered by external stimuli (e.g., loud noise); see endogenous spatial attention.
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Extinction
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A disorder of visual attention in which a stimulus presented to the side opposite the brain damage is not detected when another stimulus is presented at the same time to the same side as the brain damage.
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Focused attention
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A situation in which individuals try to attend to only one source of information while ignoring other stimuli; also known as selective attention.
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Inhibition of return
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A reduced probability of visual attention returning to a previously attended location or object.
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Neglect
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A disorder of visual attention in which stimuli or parts of stimuli presented to the side opposite the brain damage are undetected and not responded to; the condition resembles extinction but is more severe.
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Psychological refractory period (PRP) effect
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The slowing of the response to the second of two stimuli when they are presented close together in time.
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Simultanagosia
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A brain-damaged condition in which only one object can be seen at a time.
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Split attention
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Allocation of attention to two (or more) non-adjacent regions of visual space.
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Stroop effect
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the finding that naming of the colors in which words are printed is slower when the words are conflicting color words (e.g., the word RED printed in green).
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Underadditivity
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The finding that brain activation when two tasks are performed together is less than the sum of the brain activations when they are performed singly.
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Ventriloquist illusion
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The mistaken perception that sounds are coming from their apparent visual source, as in ventriloquism.
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Visual search
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A task involving the rapid detection of a specified target stimulus within a visual display.
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Articulatory suppression
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Rapid repetition of some simple sound (e.g., “the, the, the”), which uses the articulatory control process of the phonological loop.
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Central executive
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A modality-free, limited capacity, component of working memory.
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Chunks
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A stored unit formed from integrating smaller pieces of information.
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Consolidation
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A process lasting several hours or more which fixes information in long-term memory.
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Directed forgetting
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Impaired long-term memory resulting from the instruction to forget information presented for learning.
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Dysexecutive syndrome
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A condition in which damage to the frontal lobes causes impairments to the central executive component of working memory.
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Echoic store
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A sensory store in which auditory information is briefly held.
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Encoding specificity principle
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The notion that retrieval depends on the overlap between the information available at retrieval and the information in the memory trace.
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Episodic buffer
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A component of working memory that is used to integrate and to store briefly information from the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.
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Executive processes
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Processes that organize and co-ordinate the functioning of the cognitive system to achieve current goals.
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Implicit learning
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Learning complex information without the ability to provide conscious recollection of what has been learned.
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Inner scribe
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According to Logie, the part of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that deals with spatial and movement information.
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Maintenance rehearsal
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Processing that involves simply repeating analyses which have already been carried out.
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Phonological loop
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A component of working memory, in which speech-based information is held and subvocal articulation occurs.
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Phonological similarity effect
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he finding that serial recall of visually presented words is worse when the words are phonologically similar rather than phonologically dissimilar.
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Recency effect
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The finding that the last few items in a list are much better remembered than other items in immediate free recall.
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Repression
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Motivated forgetting of traumatic or other threatening events.
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Retrograde amnesia
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Impaired memory for events occurring before the onset of amnesia.
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Savings method
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A measure of forgetting introduced by Ebbinghaus, in which the number of trials for re-learning is compared against the number for original learning.
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Stroop Task
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A task in which the participant has to name the colors in which words are printed.
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Visual cache
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According to Logie, the part of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that stores information about visual form and color.
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Visuo-spatial sketchpad
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A component of working memory that is involved in visual and spatial processing of information.
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Word-length effect
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The finding that word span is greater for short words than for long words.
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Alzheimer’s disease
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A condition involving progressive loss of memory and mental abilities.
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Apraxia
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A neurological condition in which patients are unable to perform voluntary bodily movements.
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Anterograde amnesia
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Reduced ability to remember information acquired after the onset of amnesia.
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Category-specific deficits
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Disorders caused by brain damage in which semantic memory is disrupted for certain semantic categories.
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Concepts
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Mental representations of categories of objects or items.
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Conceptual priming
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A form of repetition priming in which there is facilitated processing of stimulus meaning.
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Declarative memory
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A form of long-term memory that involves knowing that something is the case and generally involves conscious recollection; it includes memory for facts (semantic memory) and memory for events (episodic memory).
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Double dissociation
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he finding that some individuals (often brain-damaged) do well on task A and poorly on task B, whereas others show the opposite pattern.
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Episodic memory
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A form of long-term memory concerned with personal experiences or episodes that occurred in a given place at a specific time; see semantic memory.
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Explicit memory
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Memory that involves conscious recollection of information; see implicit memory.
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Implicit memory
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Memory that does not depend on conscious recollection; see explicit memory.
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Korsakoff’s syndrome
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Amnesia (impaired long-term memory) caused by chronic alcoholism.
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Non-declarative memory
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Forms of long-term memory that influence behavior but do not involve conscious recollection; priming and procedural memory are examples of non-declarative memory.
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Parkinson’s disease
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It is a progressive disorder involving damage to the basal ganglia; the symptoms include rigidity of the muscles, limb tremor, and mask- like facial expression.
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Perceptual priming
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A form of repetition priming in which repeated presentation of a stimulus facilitates perceptual processing of it.
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Perceptual representation system
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An implicit memory system thought to be involved in the faster processing of previously presented stimuli (e.g., repetition priming).
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Procedural memory
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This is concerned with knowing how, and includes the ability to perform skilled actions; see declarative memory.
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Repetition priming
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The finding that stimulus processing is faster and easier on the second and successive presentations.
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Retrograde amnesia
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Impaired memory for events occurring before the onset of amnesia.
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Semantic dementia
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A condition in which there is widespread loss of information about the meanings of words and concepts but executive functioning is reasonably intact in the early stages.
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Semantic memory
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A form of long-term memory consisting of general knowledge about the world, concepts, language, and so on; see episodic memory.
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Typicality effect
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The finding that objects can be identified faster as category members when they are typical or representative members of the category in question.
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Autobiographical memory
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Memory for the events of one’s own life.
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Cognitive interview
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An approach to improving the memory of eyewitness recall based on the assumption that memory traces contain many features.
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Confirmation bias
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A greater focus on evidence apparently confirming one’s hypothesis than on disconfirming evidence.
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Cross-race effect
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The finding that recognition memory for same-race faces is generally more accurate than for cross-race faces.
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Direct retrieval
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Involuntary recall of autobiographical memories triggered by a specific retrieval cue (e.g., being in the same place as the original event); see generative retrieval.
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Event-based prospective memory
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Remembering to perform an intended action when the circumstances are suitable; see time-based prospective memory.
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Flashbulb memories
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Vivid and detailed memories of dramatic events.
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Gateway hypothesis
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The assumption that BA10 in the prefrontal cortex acts as an attentional gateway between our internal thoughts and external stimuli.
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Generative retrieval
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Deliberate or voluntary construction of autobiographical memories based on an individual’s current goals; see direct retrieval.
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Infantile amnesia
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The inability of adults to recall autobiographical memories from early childhood.
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Life script
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Cultural expectations concerning the nature and order of major life events in a typical person’s life.
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Prospective memory
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Remembering to carry out intended actions.
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Proust phenomenon
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The finding that odors are especially powerful cues for the recall of very old and emotional autobiographical memories.
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Reminiscence bump
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The tendency of older people to recall a disproportionate number of autobiographical memories from the years of adolescence and early adulthood.
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Retrospective memory
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Memory for events, words, people, and so on encountered or experienced in the past; see prospective memory.
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Time-based prospective memory
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Remembering to carry out an intended action at the right time; see event-based prospective memory.
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Unconscious transference
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The tendency of eyewitnesses to misidentify a familiar (but innocent) face as belonging to the person responsible for a crime.
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Verbal overshadowing
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The reduction in recognition memory for faces that often occurs when eyewitnesses provide verbal descriptions of those faces before the recognition-memory test.
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Weapon focus
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The finding that eyewitnesses pay so much attention to some crucial aspect of the situation (e.g., the weapon) that they tend to ignore other details.
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Allophony
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An allophone is one of two or more similar sounds belonging to the same phoneme.
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Cascade model
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A model in which information passes from one level to the next before processing is complete at the first level.
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Categorical perception
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Perceiving stimuli as belonging to specific categories; found with phonemes.
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Co-articulation
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The finding that the production of a phoneme is influenced by the production of the previous sound and preparations for the next sound; it provides a useful cue to listeners.
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Deep dyslexia
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A condition in which reading unfamiliar words is impaired and there are semantic reading errors (e.g., reading “missile” as “rocket”).
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Deep dysphasia
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A condition in which there is poor ability to repeat spoken words and especially nonwords, and there are semantic errors in repeating spoken words.
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Formants
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Peaks in the frequencies of speech sounds; revealed by a spectrograph.
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Heterographs
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Words having the same pronunciation but different spellings (e.g., “maid”, “made”).
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Homographs
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Words having the same pronunciations but that differ in the way they are spelled.
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Homophones
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Words having the same pronunciations but that differ in spellings and/or meanings (e.g., “glasses” meaning reading glasses or drinking glasses).
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Lexical access
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Entering the lexicon with its store of detailed information about words.
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Lexical decision task
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A task in which individuals decide as rapidly as possible whether a letter string forms a word.
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Lexical identification shift
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The finding that an ambiguous phoneme tends to be perceived so as to form a word rather than a nonword.
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Lexicon
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A store of detailed information about words, including orthographic, phonological, semantic, and syntactic knowledge.
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Naming task
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A task in which visually presented words are pronounced aloud as rapidly as possible.
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Orthographic neighbors
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With reference to a given word, those other words that can be formed by changing one of its letters.
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Orthography
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Information about the spellings of words.
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Parafoveal-on-foveal effects
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The finding that fixation duration on the current word is influenced by characteristics of the next word.
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Perceptual span
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The effective field of view in reading (letters to the left and right of fixation that can be processed).
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Phonemes
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Basic speech sounds conveying meaning.
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Phonemic restoration effect
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An illusion in which the listener “perceives” a phoneme has been deleted from a spoken sentence.
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Phonological dyslexia
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A condition in which familiar words can be read but there is impaired ability to read unfamiliar words and nonwords.
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Phonology
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Information about the sounds of words and parts of words.
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Priming
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Influencing the processing of (and response to) a target by presenting a stimulus related to it in some way beforehand.
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Prosodic cues
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Features of spoken language such as stress, intonation, and duration that make it easier for listeners to understand what is being said.
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Pseudoword
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A pronounceable nonword (e.g., “tave”).
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Pure word deafness
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A condition in which severely impaired speech perception is combined with good speech production, reading, writing, and perception of non- speech sounds.
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Saccades
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Fast eye movements that cannot be altered after being initiated.
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Segmentation problem
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The listener’s problem of dividing the almost continuous sounds of speech into separate phonemes and words.
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Semantic priming effect
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The finding that word identification is facilitated when there is priming by a semantically related word.
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Semantics
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The meaning conveyed by words and sentences.
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Spectrograph
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An instrument used to produce visible records of the sound frequencies in speech.
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Spillover effect
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Any given word is fixated longer during reading when preceded by a rare word rather than a common one.
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Surface dyslexia
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A condition in which regular words can be read but there is impaired ability to read irregular words.
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Transcortical sensory aphasia
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A disorder in which words can be repeated but there are many problems with language.
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Word meaning deafness
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A condition in which there is a selective impairment of the ability to understand spoken (but not written) language.
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Word superiority effect
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A target letter is more readily detected in a letter string when the string forms a word than when it does not.
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Anaphor resolution
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Working out the referent of a pronoun or noun by relating it to some previously mentioned noun or noun phrase
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Bridging inferences
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Inferences that are drawn to increase the coherence between the current and preceding parts of a text; also known as backward inferences.
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Discourse
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Connected text or speech generally at least several sentences long.
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Egocentric heuristic
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A strategy in which listeners interpret what they hear based on their own knowledge rather than on knowledge shared with the speaker.
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Elaborative inferences
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Inferences that add details to a text that is being read by making use of our general knowledge; also known as forward inferences.
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Figurative language
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Forms of language (e.g., metaphor) not intended to be taken literally.
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Fronto-temporal dementia
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A condition caused by damage to the frontal and temporal lobes in which there are typically several language difficulties.
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Logical inferences
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Inferences depending solely on the meaning of words.
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Operation span
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The maximum number of items (arithmetical questions + words) from which an individual can recall all the last words.
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Parsing
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An analysis of the syntactical or grammatical structure of sentences.
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Proposition
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A statement making an assertion or denial and which can be true or false.
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Rationalization
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In Bartlett’s theory, the tendency in recall of stories to produce errors conforming to the cultural expectations of the rememberer.
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Reading span
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The largest number of sentences read for comprehension from which an individual can recall all the final words more than 50% of the time.
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Schemas
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Organized packets of information about the world, events, or people stored in long-term memory.
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Verb bias
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A characteristic of many verbs that are found more often in some syntactic structures than in others.
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