Memory and agingAge-related memory loss, sometimes described as "normal aging" (also spelled "ageing" in British English), is qualitatively different from memory loss associated with types of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease, and is believed to have a different brain mechanism. Mild cognitive impairment Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition in which people face memory problems more often than that of the average person their age. These symptoms, however, do not prevent them from carrying out normal activities and are not as severe as the symptoms for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Memory spanIn psychology and neuroscience, memory span is the longest list of items that a person can repeat back in correct order immediately after presentation on 50% of all trials. Items may include words, numbers, or letters. The task is known as digit span when numbers are used. Memory span is a common measure of working memory and short-term memory. It is also a component of cognitive ability tests such as the WAIS. Backward memory span is a more challenging variation which involves recalling items in reverse order.
Memory rehearsalMemory rehearsal is a term for the role of repetition in the retention of memories. It involves repeating information over and over in order to get the information processed and stored as a memory. Maintenance rehearsal is a type of memory rehearsal that is useful in maintaining information in short-term memory or working memory. Because this usually involves repeating information without thinking about its meaning or connecting it to other information, the information is not usually transferred to long-term memory.
Two-streams hypothesisThe two-streams hypothesis is a model of the neural processing of vision as well as hearing. The hypothesis, given its initial characterisation in a paper by David Milner and Melvyn A. Goodale in 1992, argues that humans possess two distinct visual systems. Recently there seems to be evidence of two distinct auditory systems as well. As visual information exits the occipital lobe, and as sound leaves the phonological network, it follows two main pathways, or "streams".
SaillanceLa saillance (de l'anglais salience, construit sur salient, du français saillant, lui-même du latin saliens, « qui saute ») d'une chose quelconque est le fait qu'elle attire l'attention ; plus précisément, la mesure dans laquelle elle retient l'attention par rapport aux autres choses présentes dans son environnement (y compris des choses similaires). Par exemple, un mot peut être mieux perçu que d'autres dans un message (saillance linguistique).
Serial-position effectSerial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst. The term was coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus through studies he performed on himself, and refers to the finding that recall accuracy varies as a function of an item's position within a study list. When asked to recall a list of items in any order (free recall), people tend to begin recall with the end of the list, recalling those items best (the recency effect).
Chunking (psychology)In cognitive psychology, chunking is a process by which small individual pieces of a set of information are bound together to create a meaningful whole later on in memory. The chunks, by which the information is grouped, are meant to improve short-term retention of the material, thus bypassing the limited capacity of working memory and allowing the working memory to be more efficient. A chunk is a collection of basic units that are strongly associated with one another, and have been grouped together and stored in a person's memory.
Autobiographical memoryAutobiographical memory (AM) is a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individual's life, based on a combination of episodic (personal experiences and specific objects, people and events experienced at particular time and place) and semantic (general knowledge and facts about the world) memory. It is thus a type of explicit memory. Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) proposed that autobiographical memory is constructed within a self-memory system (SMS), a conceptual model composed of an autobiographical knowledge base and the working self.
Effet Stroopvignette|D'après les expériences de Stroop, lorsque le nom d'une couleur est écrit dans une couleur différente (mot incongruent), il est plus difficile de nommer la couleur dans laquelle il est écrit, que de le lire. vignette|Figure 1 de l'expérience 2, extraite de l'article original de Stroop en 1935, montrant le temps nécessaire pour nommer la couleur de points (sans interférence, 1) et de mots incongruents (avec interférence, 2). Ce temps augmente en moyenne de 74 % lorsqu'il y a interférence.