Memory Flashcards
amnesia
Loss of memory
chunking
A strategy to increase memory in which smaller bits of information are grouped into meaningful units.
confabulation
An imagined but plausible memory that fills in gaps about what a person actually remembers.
decay
A theory of forgetting in which items are lost from memory because of the passage of time.
declarative memory
The portion of long-term memory that involves memory for facts and events. Declarative memory is further divided into semantic and episodic memory.
echoic memory
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, lasting two to three seconds.
encode
To transform incoming information so that it can be processed and stored in memory.
episodic memory
The part of declarative memory that involves memory for specific events in one’s own life.
false memory syndrome
A condition in which a person has a memory for an event that either didn’t occur at all, or occurred in a manner much different from the person’s memory of it.
iconic memory
A momentary sensual memory of visual stimuli, lasting several tenths of a second.
implicit memory
The portion of long-term memory that deals with remembering procedures, such as driving a car or playing the trombone. It is also known as procedural memory.
interference
A process in which memory for certain information disrupts memory for other information. Interference can be proactive, when previously learned information disrupts the ability to learn later information; or it can be retroactive, when learning new information makes it harder to remember old information.
long-term memory
Virtually limitless, virtually permanent memory storage.
long-term potentiation
The biological basis of learning and memory, it is an increase in a synapse’s firing ability after a sequence of neurons is connected with a memory or learning.
mnemonic strategies
Strategies that are used to improve memory, such as the method of loci.
procedural memory
The portion of long-term memory that deals with remembering procedures, such as driving a car or playing the trombone. It is also known as implicit memory.
reconstructive nature of memory
The view that our memory is not a perfect recording of events that occurred; rather, we reconstruct our memories through the filter of our present experience. Our present experience influences our recall of those events.
repression
The act of removing a memory from conscious awareness. According to some psychologists, repressed memories can be recovered in therapy, but this remains a very controversial practice.
retrieval
Calling forth information from long-term memory.
retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory for events that preceded the event that caused the memory loss.
semantic memory
Memory for “impersonal” information, such as meanings and facts. This is in contrast with episodic memory, which is memory for events in our own lives.
sensory memory
Briefly retained information picked up by the sensory organs.
serial order (position) effects
A memory phenomenon in which the items at the beginning and end of a list are more likely to be remembered than the items in the middle of a list.
short-term (working) memory
Memory that holds the information currently being used, as well as the means by which to process that information. A good analogy is that working memory is like RAM in a computer.
