Chapter 7: Cognitive Learning and Human Memory

Theories that explain learning in terms of people's thinking and the processes involved in acquiring, organizing, and using knowledge

A theory that describes how information enters our memory system, is organized, and finally stored

A representation that helps us visualize what we can't observe directly

Composed of three major components: memory stores (sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory), cognitive processes (attention, perception, rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval), and metacognition

Sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory repositories that hold information, both in a raw state and in organized, meaningful form

The memory store that briefly holds incoming stimuli from the environment until they can be processed

The memory store that holds information as we consciously process and try to make sense of it

A supervisory component of working memory that controls the flow of information to and from the other components

A short-term storage system for words and sounds in working memory

The process of repeating information over and over, either out loud or silently, without altering its form

A short-term storage system for visual and spatial information in working memory

Historically, the part of our memory system that temporarily holds information until it can be processed

The amount of mental activity imposed on working memory

The process of mentally combining separate items into larger, more meaningful units

The ability to perform mental operations with little awareness or conscious effort

The permanent information store in our human memory system

Knowledge of facts, definitions, procedures, and rules

Memory for concepts, principles, and the relationships among them

Memory for personal experiences

Knowledge of how to perform tasks

Knowledge of where and when to use declarative and procedural knowledge

Cognitive structures that represents the way information is organized in our long-term memory

The extent to which information in long-term memory is interconnected with other information

Schemas for events that guide behavior in particular situations

The process people use to find meaning in stimuli

The process of representing information in long-term memory

Learning that involves storing information in isolated pieces, most commonly through memorization

The process of forming mental pictures of an ideas

A theory suggesting that long-term memory contains two distinct memory contains two distinct memory systems: one for verbal information and one that stores images

An encoding strategy that involves the clustering of related items of content into categories that illustrate relationships

An encoding strategy that involves activating relevant prior knowledge so that new knowledge can be connected to it

An encoding strategy that increases the meaningfulness of new information by connecting it to existing knowledge

Descriptions of relationships between ideas that are similar in some but not all respects

Memory strategies that create associations that don't exist naturally in the content

The loss of, or inability to retrieve, information from long-term memory

The loss of information because something learned either before or after detracts from understanding

The loss of new information because of the influence of prior learning

The loss of previously learned information because of the influence of new learning

The process of pulling information from long-term memory into working memory

Our awareness of and our control over our cognitive processes

Our knowledge of and control over our ability to pay attention

Knowledge of and control over our memory strategies

The tendency to make conclusions and decisions without thinking about them

The practice of calling on all students in a class equally