There is a separate short-term memory (STM) system that holds information for several seconds.  Without active effort by the participant, information in STM fades.

The point at which one’s categorical perception changes from one distinct category to another.

Conjunctive Search

                                              (pg. 37):

A target is a conjunction of features in the distracters. A target the subject is looking for does not stand out because the distracters are similar to the target.

Refers to the influence of context on the way people make decisions.

Irrelevant Speech Effect

(pg. 69):

The memory of a list of items may be impaired when an irrelevant speech (auditory) stimulus follows the presentation of the list, even when the list is visually presented.

Korte’s Law

                                                  (pg. 26):

- Interstimuls Interval (ISI) thresholds for seeing motion versus being too short varied with the special separation of the stimuli.

- Statements describing aspects of apparent motion, such as the relation between the ISI and the spatial separation required for motion to be perceived.

Modality Effect

                                              (pg. 53):

- The advantage in recalling just the last one or two items when a list is heard.

- Can help to explain why the memory for the last item in a list of items improves when it is presented in specific modalities, i.e. when a list is read out loud or is silently mouthed.

Classical problem of understanding probability.  According to this logic, you increase your probability of willing over the long term if you always switch (i.e. three card monte, shell game, etc.)

Muller-Lyer

                                              (pg. 31):

- Method of constant stimuli.  Comparing the length of lines with wings to lines without wings.

- The arrow illusion in which the shank with the outward wings appears longer than the shank with the inward wings even though the shanks are the same objective length.

Signal Detection

                                                 (pg. 34):

- The ability to accurately detect a known stimulus.

- A procedure that provides a separate measure of sensitivity and response bias for situations in which observers are required to detect the presence of a faint target.

Simon Effect

                                             (pg. 17):

- People are faster and more accurate when responding to stimuli that occur in the same relative location as the response, even though the location information is irrelevant to the actual task.

- Response time may be reduced and accuracy may increase when a stimulus is presented in the same relative location as the response required.

Sternberg's STM Search

(pg. 66):

Refers to the difficulty participants have in naming ink colors of color words when the ink color and color words do not agree.

Stimulus-Identification Interference (i.e. BLUE)

Visual Masking

(pg 50):

- Phenomena in which presentation of one stimulus (the mask) can impair performance on some task that requires judgment about another stimulus (the target).

- The impaired performance on the judgment of a target stimulus due to the presentation of another stimulus (the mask).

- Stimulus Salience for Recall; when an item stands out in a list because it is distinctive, it is easier to recall.

- A recall-memory phenomenon that helps to explain why the memory of an item in a list improves if it si distinctive from the surrounding items.