Chapter 7 Flashcards
Memory
Retention of information over time
Sensory memory
Brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short-term memory
Iconic memory
Visual sensory memory
Echoic memory
Auditory sensory memory
Short-term memory
Memory system that retains information for limited durations
Decay
Fading of information from memory over time
Interference
Loss of information from memory because of competition from additional incoming information
Retroactive interference
Interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information
Proactive interference
Interference with acquisition of new information due to the previous learning of information
Magic number
The span of short-term memory, according to George Miller: 7 plus or minus two pieces of information
Chunking
Organizing information into meaningful groupings, allowing us to extend the span of short-term memory
Rehearsal
Repeating information to extend the duration of retention and short-term memory
Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating stimuli and their original form to retain them in short-term memory
Elaborative rehearsal
Linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retention of information in short-term memory
Levels of processing
Depth of transforming information, which influences how easily we remember it
Long-term memory
Relatively enduring retention of information stored regardless of our facts, experiences, and skills
Permastore
Type of long-term memory that appears to be permanent
Primacy effect
Tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
Recency effect
Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
Serial position curve
Graph depicting both primacy and recency effects on people’s ability to recall items on a list
Semantic memory
Our knowledge of facts about the world
Episodic memory
Recollection of events in our lives
Explicit memory
Memories We recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness
Implicit memory
Memories We Don’t deliberately remember or reflect on consciously
Procedural memory
Memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits
Priming
Our ability to identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we’ve encountered similar stimuli
Encoding
Process of getting information into our memory banks
Mnemonic
A learning aid, strategy, or device that enhances recall
Storage
Process of keeping information in memory
Schema
Organized to knowledge structure or mental model that we’ve stored in memory
Retrieval
Reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores
Retrieval cue
Hint that makes it easier for us to recall information
Recall
Generating previously remembered information
Recognition
Selecting previously remembered information from an array of options
Relearning
Reacquiring knowledge that we’d previously learned but largely forgotten over time
Distributed versus massed practice
Studying information in small increments over time versus in large increments over a brief amount of time
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
Experience of knowing that we know something but unable to access it
Encoding specificity
Phenomenon of remembering something better when the conditions under which we retrieve information are similar to the conditions under which we encode it
Context dependent learning
Superior retrieval of memories when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context
State dependent learning
Superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding
Long-term potentiation
Gradual strengthening of connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memories from our past
Anterograde amnesia
Inability to encode new memories from our experiences
Meta memory
Knowledge about our own memory abilities and limitations
Infantile amnesia
Inability of adult to remember personal experiences that took place before and early age
Flashbulb memory
Emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detailed
Source monitoring confusion
Lack of clarity about the origin of a memory
Cryptomnesia
Failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else
Suggestive memory technique
Procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place
Misinformation effect
Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place
