Ch. 7: Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

Capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information (Hermann Ebbinghaus 1850-1909)

Question 2

Encoding

Answer 2

The process by which the perception of a stimulus or event gets transformed into a memory.

Question 3

Storage

Answer 3

Retention of encoded information over time

Question 4

Retrieval

Answer 4

Recovery of the stored information

Question 5

The multi-store model of memory

Answer 5

Sensory Store –attention–> Short Term Store/Memory (rehearsal and loss of information (the bottle neck)) <–transfer and retrieval–> Long Term Store/Memory

Question 6

Chunking

Answer 6

the process by which the mind divides large pieces of information into smaller units (chunks) that are easier to retain in short-term memory

Question 7

Working memory (WM)

Answer 7

A limited-capacity cognitive system that temporarily stores and manipulates information for current use.

Working memory allows for the manipulation of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to the short-term storage of information; active vs. passive

Question 8

Long-term Memory (LTM)

Answer 8

Storehouse of all experiences, events, information, emotions, skills, words, categories, etc.
Preservation of information for retrieval at any later time; has unlimited capacity

Question 9

Explicit memory

Answer 9

declarative knowledge (with conscious recall)
Memory that is consciously retrieved.

Question 10

Semantic memory

Answer 10

Memory for facts independent of personal experience.
Facts and general knowlegde

Question 11

Episodic memory

Answer 11

Memory for one’s past experiences that are identified by a time and place.
Personally experienced events

Question 12

Implicit memory

Answer 12

Memory that is expressed through responses, actions, or reactions.

Question 13

Procedural memory

Answer 13

A type of implicit memory that involves skills and habits.
Motor and cognitive skills
- Tying shoes
- Riding a bike

Question 14

Priming

Answer 14

Enhanced identification of objects and words.
A facilitation in the response to a stimulus due to recent experience with that stimulus or a related stimulus.

Question 15

Serial Position Effect

Answer 15

The psychological tendency to remember the first (Primacy) and last (Recency) items in a list better than those in the middle (Intermediate).

Question 16

Schema Theory

Answer 16

A branch of cognitive science concerned with how the brain structures knowledge. A schema is an organized unit of knowledge for a subject or event. It is based on past experience and is accessed to guide current understanding or action.
Schemas (or schemata) are units of understanding that can be hierarchically categorized as well as webbed into complex relationships with one another. For example, think of a house. You probably get an immediate mental image of something out of a kid’s storybook: four windows, front door, suburban setting, chimney.

Question 17

Mnemonic Devices

Answer 17

techniques a person can use to help them improve their ability to remember something.

Question 18

amnesia

Answer 18

A deficit in long-term memory—resulting from disease, brain injury, or psychological trauma—in which the individual loses the ability to retrieve vast quantities of information.

Question 19

retrograde amnesia

Answer 19

A condition in which people lose past memories, such as memories for events, facts, people, or even personal information.

Question 20

anterograde amnesia

Answer 20

A condition in which people lose the ability to form new memories.

Question 21

dual-coding hypothesis

Answer 21

information that can be coded verbally and visually will
be remembered more easily than information that can be coded only verbally.

Question 22

maintenance rehearsal

Answer 22

simply rehearsal by repetition of the item over and over

Question 23

elaborative rehearsal

Answer 23

type or rehearsal which encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking about the item conceptually or deciding whether it refers to oneself. In other words, in this type of rehearsal, we elaborate on basic information by linking it in meaningful ways to existing knowledge.

Question 24

method of loci/memory palace

Answer 24

a mnemonic strategy of associating items you want to remember with physical locations familiar to you

Question 25

iconic memory

Answer 25

the storage for visual memory that allows people to visualize an image after the physical stimulus is no longer present. It is a type of sensory memory that lasts just milliseconds before fading.

Question 26

echoic memory

Answer 26

the ultra-short-term memory for things you hear. When someone protests, “You’re not paying attention to me,” you might be able to repeat back the last few words the person spoke, even if you were thinking about something else.

Question 27

sensory memory

Answer 27

A memory system that very briefly stores sensory information in close to its original sensory form.

Question 28

primacy effect

Answer 28

the better memory that people have for items presented at the beginning of a list.

Question 29

recency effect

Answer 29

the better memory that people have for the
most recent items, the ones at the end of a list

Question 30

serial position effect

Answer 30

The finding that the ability to recall items from a list depends on the order of presentation, such that items presented early or late in the list are remembered better than those in the middle.

Question 31

consolidation

Answer 31

The gradual process of memory storage in the brain.

Question 32

long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 32

Strengthening of a synaptic connection, making the postsynaptic neurons more easily activated by presynaptic neurons. “neurons that fire together wire together”

Question 33

flashbulb memories

Answer 33

Vivid episodic memories for the circumstances in which people first learned of a surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing event.

Question 34

reconsolidation

Answer 34

The re-storage of memory after retrieval. This can modify and strengthen the memory.

Question 35

retrieval cue

Answer 35

Any stimulus that promotes memory recall. For example physcical/situational factors or the state (of mind) someon’s in.

Question 36

encoding specificity principle

Answer 36

The idea that any stimulus that is encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory of the experience.

Question 37

prospective memory

Answer 37

Remembering to do something at some future time.