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