Chapter 6 - Memory Flashcards
Memory
An active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, and organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.
Encoding
The set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems
Information processing model
Model of memory that assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages.
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model
A model of memory in which memory processes are proposed to take place at the same time over a large network of neural connections
Levels of processing model
Model of memory that assumes information that is more “deeply processed,” or processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time.
Sensory Information
The very first system in memory, in which raw information from the senses is held for a very brief period of time.
Iconic memory
Visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a second.
Eidetic imagery
The ability to access a visual memory for 30 seconds or more
Echoic memory
Auditory sensory memory, lasting only 2 to 4 seconds
Working memory
An active system that processes the information in short-term memory
Maintenance rehearsal
Practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one’s head in order to maintain it in short-term memory
Elaborative rehearsal
A way of increasing the number of retrieval cues for information by connecting new information with something that is already well known
Nondeclarative (implicit) memory
Type of long term memory including memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses. These memories are not conscious but are implied to exist because they affect conscious behavior.
Anterograde amnesia
New long term memories cannot be formed
Declarative (explicit) memory
Type of long term memory containing information that is conscious and known
Semantic memory
Type of declarative memory containing general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education
Episodic memory
Type of declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events.
Semantic network model
Model of memory organization that assumes information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion, with concepts that are related stored physically closer to each other than concepts that are not highly related.
Encoding specificity
The tendency for memory of information to be improved if related information that is available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved
Serial position effect
Tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information
Primary effect
Tendency to remember information at the beginning of a body of information better than the information that follows
Regency effect
Tendency to remember information at the end of a body of information better than the information that precedes it
Automatic encoding
Tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long term memory with little or no effortful encoding
Flashbulb
Type of automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering it
Constructive processing
Referring to the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information.
Hindsight bias
The tendency to falsely believe, through revision of older memories to include newer information, that one could have correctly predicted the outcome of an event.
Curve of forgetting
A graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually
Memory trace
A physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed
Consolidation
Changes that take place in the structure and functioning of neurons when a memory is formed
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory from the point of injury backward
Anterograde amnesia
Loss of memory from point of injury forward
