Chapter 7: Memory*

Question 1

What is encoding?

Answer 1

The process of taking information from the world, including our internal thoughts and feelings, and converting it to memories.

Question 2

What is storage?

Answer 2

The maintenance of information in the brain for later access.

Question 3

What is retrieval?

Answer 3

The process of bringing to mind previously encoded and stored information.

Question 4

What is the multistore model of memory?

Answer 4

A model proposes that information flows from our senses through three storage levels in memory: sensory, short term, and long term.

Question 5

What is sensory memory?

Answer 5

A storage level of memory that holds sensory information on the order of milliseconds to seconds.

Question 6

What is short term memory?

Answer 6

A storage level of memory where information can be held briefly, from seconds to less than a minute.

Question 7

What is long term memory?

Answer 7

A storage level of memory where information can be held for hours to many years and potentially a lifetime.

Question 8

What is iconic memory?

Answer 8

A rapidly decaying store of visual sensory information.

Question 9

What is echoic memory?

Answer 9

A rapidly decaying store of auditory sensory information.

Question 10

What is chunking?

Answer 10

The process of grouping stimuli together in chunks in working memory to increase the amount of information stored in short-term memory.

Question 11

What is working memory?

Answer 11

A component of memory that allows for both the short-term storage and manipulation of information in real time.

Question 12

What is rehearsal?

Answer 12

The holding of information in the brain through mental repetition.

Question 13

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 13

The inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing new long-term memories from forming.

Question 14

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 14

A form of amnesia in which access to memories prior to brain damage is impaired, but the individual can store new experiences in long-term memory.

Question 15

What is shallow encoding?

Answer 15

Encoding based on sensory characteristics, such as how something looks or sounds.

Question 16

What is deep encoding?

Answer 16

Encoding based on an event’s meaning as well as connections between the new event and past experiences.

Question 17

What is self-referential encoding?

Answer 17

Encoding based on an event’s relation to our self-concept, which leads to enhanced memory for the event.

Question 18

What is explicit memory?

Answer 18

A form of memory that involves intentional and conscious remembering.

Question 19

What is implicit memory?

Answer 19

A form of memory that occurs without intentional recollection or awareness and can be measured indirectly through the influence of prior learning on behaviour.

Question 20

What is procedural memory?

Answer 20

A type of implicit memory related to the acquisition of new skills.

Question 21

What is priming?

Answer 21

The increased ability to process a stimulus because of previous exposure.

Question 22

What is affective conditioning?

Answer 22

A form of conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires positive or negative value.

Question 23

What is episodic memory?

Answer 23

The explicit recollection of personal experience that requires piecing together the elements of that time and place.

Question 24

What is semantic memory?

Answer 24

Explicit memory supporting knowledge about the world, including concepts and facts.

Question 25

What is retrospective memory?

Answer 25

Memory for things we have done in the past.

Question 26

What is prospective memory?

Answer 26

Memory for things we need to do in the future.

Question 27

What is consolidation?

Answer 27

The process whereby memory storage is integrated and becomes stable in the brain.

Question 28

What is reconsolidation?

Answer 28

Reactivation of consolidation by retrieving a memory, making the memory susceptible to change.

Question 29

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

Answer 29

A mechanism that creates enduring synaptic connections, which results in increased transmission between neurons.

Question 30

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 30

A vivid memory for an emotionally significant event, thought to be permanent and detailed, as if frozen in time like a photograph.

Question 31

What is free recall?

Answer 31

Accessing information from memory without any cues to aid your retrieval.

Question 32

What are retrieval cues?

Answer 32

Information related to stored memories that helps bring the memories back to mind.

Question 33

What is cued recall?

Answer 33

A form of retrieval that is facilitated by providing information related to the stored memory.

Question 34

What is recognition?

Answer 34

A form of retrieval that relies on identifying previously seen or experienced information.

Question 35

What is the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 35

The idea that retrieval is best when the present context recreates the context in which information was initially encoded.

Question 36

What is state-dependant retrieval?

Answer 36

The increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same state during both encoding and retrieval.

Question 37

What is mood-dependant retrieval?

Answer 37

The increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same mood during both encoding and retrieval.

Question 38

What is a forgetting curve?

Answer 38

The retention of information over various delay times.

Question 39

What is retroactive inference?

Answer 39

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

Question 40

What is proactive inference?

Answer 40

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Question 41

What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?

Answer 41

A failure to retrieve information despite confidence that it is stored in the memory.

Question 42

What is motivated forgetting?

Answer 42

Willful forgetting of information so that it is less likely to be retrieved later.

Question 43

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 43

The decreased accuracy of episodic memories because of information provided after the event.

Question 43

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 43

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories from the first few years of life.

Question 44

What is a reminiscence bump?

Answer 44

A time of prominent memory making between adolescence and early adulthood.

Question 45

What is the spacing effect?

Answer 45

The enhanced ability to remember information when encoding is distributed over time.