Chapter 9: Memory Flashcards
Memory
the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of info.
Flashbulb Memories
A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Encoding
The processing of info into the memory system.
Storage
The retention of encoded info over time.
Retrieval
The process of getting info out of memory storage.
Sensory Memory
The immediate, very brief recording of sensory info in the memory system.
Short-term Memory
Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the 7 digits of a phone # while dialing, before the info is stored or forgotten.
Long-term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills and experiences.
Working Memory
A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial info and info of retrieved from long-term memory.
Automatic Processing
unconscious encoding of incidental info, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned info such as word meaning.
Effortful Processing
encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Rehearsal
The conscious repetition of info, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.
Spacing Effect
The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
Serial Position Effect
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items on a list.
Visual Encoding
Mental pictures, images.
Acoustic Encoding
Listening, saying something out loud.
Semantic Encoding
Give meaning to the info.
Self-reference effect
finding personal meaning.
Imagery
Mental Pictures.
Rosy Retrospection
People recall events more positively than they evaluated them at the time they occurred.
Mnemonic Devices
Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
Chunking
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.
Hierarchies
Broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts.
Iconic Memory
Visual sensory memory that lasts for 1-2 seconds
Echoic Memory
Auditory sensory memory that lasts for 1-2 seconds
George Miller
Enshrined the recall capacity of the magical #7 + or - 2
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
An increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief rapid simulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
Implicit memory
Memory of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection. Skills, habits, CC. Processed by cerebellum.
Explicit Memory
Memory of facts & experiences that one can consciously know and declare. Processed in hippocampus.
Recognition
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple choice test.
Recall
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve info learned earlier, as on a fill in the blank test.
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of particular association in memory.
Deja Vu
Eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before” (cues from current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience)
Mood-congruent memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent w ones current good or bad mood
Ebbinghaus
Retention curve - as rehearsal increases, relearning time decreases.
Proactive Interference
(Forward acting) the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info. (Remember old not new)
Retroactive Interference
(Backward acting) disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info. (Remember new not old)
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism motivated that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories (motivated forgetting)
Lotus
Psychologist, known for her work with memory (memory construction)
Misinformation effect
Incorporating misleading I do into ones memory of an event
Source amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
Amnesia
The loss of memory
Hippocampus
A neural center that is located in the limbic system and helps process explicit memory for storage
Cerebellum
The brain region extending out from the rear of the brain stem, plays a key role in forming and storing implicit memories created by CC.
Relearning
A memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for the 2nd time
