Chapter 7: Memory Key Terms Flashcards
Memory:
The ability to take in, solidify, store, and use information; also the store of what has been learned and remembered.
Encoding:
The process by which the brain attends to, takes in, and integrates new information; the first stage of long-term memory formation.
Automatic processing:
Encoding of information that occurs with little effort or conscious attention to the task.
Effortful processing:
Encoding of information that occurs with careful attention and conscious effort.
Mnemonic device:
A method devised to help us remember information, such as a rhyme or an acronym.
Consolidation:
The process of establishing, stabilizing, or solidifying a memory; the second stage of long-term memory formation.
Storage:
The retention of memory over time; the third stage of long-term memory formation.
Hierarchies:
Ways of organizing related pieces of information from the most specific feature they have in common to the most general.
Associative network:
A chain of associations between related concepts.
Retrieval:
The recovery of information stored in memory; the fourth stage of long-term memory.
Level of processing:
The concept that the more deeply people encode information, the better they will recall it.
Structural, phonemic, and semantic
Flashbulb memory:
A detailed snapshot memory for what we were doing when we first heard of a major, public, and emotionally charged event.
Three-stage model of memory:
The classification of memories based on duration as sensory, short-term, and long-term.
Sensory memory:
The part of memory that holds information in its original sensory form for a very brief period of time, usually about half a second or less.
Short-term memory:
The part of memory that temporarily (for 2 to 30 seconds) stores a limited amount of information before it is either transferred to long-term storage or forgotten.
Long-term memory:
The part of memory that has the capacity to store a vast amount of information for as little as 30 seconds and as long as a lifetime.
Working memory:
The part of memory required to attend to and solve a problem at hand; relies on short-term memory, but they are not the same thing.
Carried out by a master attentional control system:
Central executive - decides where to focus attention and selectively hones in on specific aspects of a stimulus, then information is temporarily stored in EITHER the:
Visuospatial sketchpad - briefly provides storage for visual and spatial sensations
Episodic buffer - briefly provides storage for specific events or experiences
Phonological loop - briefly stores sound or linguistic information AND ASSISTS CENTRAL EXECUTIVE by providing extra storage for up to 30 seconds at a time.
Chunking:
Breaking down a list of items to be remembered into a smaller set of meaningful units.
Rehearsal:
The process of repeatedly practicing material, so that it enters long-term memory.
Serial position effect:
The tendency to have better recall for items in a list according to their position in the list.
Primacy effect - preferentially recall items at the beginning of a list
Recency effect - preferentially recall items at the end of a list
Implicit memory:
A kind of memory made up of knowledge based on previous experience, such as skills that we perform automatically once we have mastered them; resides outside conscious awareness.
Although we can perform many skills automatically, we don’t have ready access to the memory of the many steps they require (we can’t describe these processes very well)
Procedural memory:
A kind of IMPLICIT MEMORY made up of implicit knowledge for almost any behavior or physical skill we have learned.
Priming:
A kind of IMPLICIT MEMORY that arises when recall is improved by earlier exposure to the same or similar stimuli.
Explicit memory:
Knowledge that consists of the conscious recall of facts and events; also known as declarative memory.
Two kinds: semantic and episodic
Semantic memory:
A form of memory that recalls facts and general knowledge, such as what we learn in school.
Episodic memory:
The form of memory that recalls the experiences we have had.
Highly superior autobiographical memory (HASM):
Occurs when people can recall in considerable detail personal events from almost any day of their adolescent and adult life.
Long-term potentiation:
The strengthening of a synaptic connection that results when a synapse of one neuron repeatedly fires and excites another neuron.
When synapses fire more readily, learning becomes easier and more efficient
Neurons that fire together, wire together.
Prefrontal cortex:
The frontmost region of the frontal lobes; plays an important role in attention, appropriate social behavior, impulse control, and working memory.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS):
A method of treatment that can stimulate both cortical and deeper brain structures; unlike rTMS it can be used during movement.
Reconsolidation:
Occurs when reactivation of a memory weakens the original memory and a new consolidation happens, resulting in a slightly different memory.
False memories:
Memories for events that never happened but were suggested by someone or something.
Recovered memory:
A memory from a real event that was encoded, stored, but not retrieved for a long period of time until some later event brings it suddenly to consciousness.
Suggestibility:
A problem with memory that occurs when memories are implanted in our minds based on leading questions, comments, or suggestions by someone else or some other source.
Misinformation effect:
Occurs when information learned after an original event (e.g., crime) is wrong or misleading but gets incorporated into the memory as true.
Forgetting:
The weakening or loss of memories over time.
Interference:
Disruption of memory because other information competes with the information we are trying to recall.
Two ways: retroactive interference and proactive interference
Retroactive interference:
One type of interference; Disruption of memory because NEW experiences or information INTERFERES with PREVIOUSLY learned experiences or information.
Proactive interference:
One type of interference; Disruption of memory because PREVIOUSLY learned information INTERFERES with the learning of NEW information.
Forgetting curve:
A graphic depiction of how recall steadily declines over time.
Absent-mindedness:
A form of forgetfulness that results from inattention.
Blocking:
The inability to retrieve some information that once was stored.
Repression:
The unconscious act of keeping threatening thoughts, feelings, or impulses out of consciousness.
Amnesia:
Memory loss due to brain injury or disease.
Anterograde amnesia:
The inability to remember events and experiences that occur after an injury or the onset of a disease.
Retrograde amnesia:
An inability to recall events or experiences that happened before the onset of a disease or injury.
