8. Retrieval Flashcards
Key words from Baddeley, Eysenck & Anderson (2009)
The tip-of-the-tongue state
An extreme form of pause, where the word takes a noticeable time to come out — although the speaker has a distinct feeling that he/she knows exactly what he/she wants to say.
Perhaps the most convincing evidence that our memory contains information that we cannot access comes from the experience of being asked a question to which we are sure we know the answer, although we cannot produce it at that precise moment; we feel we have it “on the tip of the tongue.”
Retrieval
The process of recovering a target memory based on one or more cues, subsequently bringing that target into awareness.
Activation level
The variable internal state of a memory trace that contributes to its accessibility at a given point.
Encoding specificity principle
The more similar the cues available at retrieval are to the conditions present at encoding, the more effective the cues will be.
Retrieval mode
The cognitive set, or frame of mind, that orients a person towards the act of retrieval, ensuring that stimuli are interpreted as retrieval.
Context cues
Retrieval cues that specify aspects of the conditions under which a desired target was encoded, including (for example) the location and time of the event.
Repetition priming
Enhanced processing of a stimulus arising from recent encounters with that stimulus, a form of implicit memory.
Context-dependent memory
The finding that memory benefits when the spatio-temporal, mood, physiological, or cognitive context at retrieval matches that present at encoding.
Mood-dependent memory:
A form of context dependent effect whereby what is learnt in a given mood, whether positive, negative or neutral, is best recalled in that mood.
Mood-congruent memory
Bias in the recall of memories such that negative mood makes negative memories more readily available than positive, and vice versa. Unlike mood dependency, it does not affect the recall of neutral memories.
Reconstructive memory
An active and inferential process of retrieval whereby gaps in memory are filled-in based on prior experience, logic, and goals.
Recognition memory
A person’s ability to correctly decide whether he/she has encountered a stimulus previously in a particular context.
Signal detection theory
A model of recognition memory that posits that memory targets (signals) and lures (noise) on a recognition test possess an attribute known as strength or familiarity, which occurs in a graded fashion, with previously encountered items generally possessing more strength that novel items. The process of recognition involves ascertaining a given test item’s strength and then deciding whether it exceeds a criterion level of strength, above which items are considered to be previously encountered. Signal detection theory provides analytic tools that separate true memory from judgment biases in recognition.
Familiarity-based recognition
A fast, automatic recognition process based on the perception of a memory’s strength. Proponents of dual process models consider familiarity to be independent of the contextual information characteristic of recollection.
Recollection
The slower, more attention-demanding component of recognition memory in dual process models, which involves retrieval of contextual information about the memory.
