Memory: Glossary

Question 1

Define cognitive psychology

Answer 1

The study of mental processes.

For example: Attention, language use, memory, perception, creativity, problem solving and thinking.

Question 2

Define human memory

Answer 2

The process by which we retain information about events that happened in the past.

Question 3

Define short term memory (STM)

Answer 3

Information that we process and store straight away is usually stored in the STM. It stores information we are currently aware of.

Question 4

Define rehearsal

Answer 4

Attending to information so that it stays in your memory.

For example: Verbally repeating it.

Question 5

Define long term memory (LTM)

Answer 5

A continual storage of information that is largely outside of our awareness, but can be recalled when necessary.

Question 6

Define retrieval

Answer 6

The process of locating and extracting stored memories.

Question 7

Define capacity

Answer 7

The amount of information held in a memory store.

Question 8

Define duration

Answer 8

The length of time information can be held in memory.

Question 9

Define serial position effect

Answer 9

The tendency for someone to recall the first and last items in a series best and the middle worst.

Question 10

Define primacy effect

Answer 10

From the serial position effect, it is the first words, which are best rehearsed, and are transferred to long term memory.

Question 11

Define recency effect

Answer 11

Another theory from the serial position effect, where it occurs because the last words in a sequence are fresh in the short term memory for the start of recall.

Question 12

Define eyewitness testemony

Answer 12

An account given by people of an event they have witnessed.

Question 13

Define leading questions

Answer 13

A question phrased in such a way that as to prompt a particular kind of answer.
Examples: Did you see a gun? → Did you see that gun

Question 14

Define retrieval failure

Answer 14

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 15

Define cue

Answer 15

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.
Example: Cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkness).

Question 16

Define encoding specificity principle

Answer 16

The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of healing original memories.

Question 17

Define coding

Answer 17

The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.

Question 18

Define multi store model (MSM)

Answer 18

A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, STM and LTM.
It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten.

Question 19

Define sensory register

Answer 19

The memory stores for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store).
Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is acoustic.
The capacity of sensory register is huge (millions of receptors) and information lasts for a very short time (less than half a second).

Question 20

Define episodic memory

Answer 20

A LTM store for personal events.
It includes memories of when the events occured and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved.
Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort.

Question 21

Define semantic memory

Answer 21

A LTM store for our knowledge of the world.
This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean.
This includes our memories of learned skills.
We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Question 22

Define working memory model (WMM)

Answer 22

A representation of STM.
It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub units coordinated by a central decision making system.

Question 23

Define central executive (CE)

Answer 23

The component of the WMM that coordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory.
It also allocates processing resources to those activities.

Question 24

Define the phonological loop (PL)

Answer 24

The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound.
This includes both written and spoken material.
It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process.

Question 25

Define visuospatial sketchpad (VSS)

Answer 25

The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’.

Question 26

Define episodic buffer (EB)

Answer 26

The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands.
It also provides a bridge between working memory and long term memory.

Question 27

Define interference

Answer 27

Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or more memories to be distorted or forgotten.

Question 28

Define proactive interference (PI)

Answer 28

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories.
The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.

Question 29

Define retroactive interference (RI)

Answer 29

Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored.
The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar.

Question 30

Define retrieval failure

Answer 30

A form of forgetting.
It occurs when we don’t have necessary cues to access memory.
The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 31

Define cue

Answer 31

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory.
Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.
For example: Cues may be external (environmental) or internal (mood or degree of drunkness).

Question 32

Define eyewitness testimony (EWT)

Answer 32

The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed.
Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety.

Question 33

Define misleading information

Answer 33

Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event (hence often called ‘post event information).
It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post event discussions between cowitnesses and/or other people.

Question 34

Define leading question

Answer 34

A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.
For example: ‘Was the knife in the accused’s left hand?’. This suggests the answer is ‘left hand’.

Question 35

Define post event discussion (PED)

Answer 35

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with cowitnesses or with other people.
This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event.

Question 36

Define anxiety

Answer 36

A state of emotional and physical arousal.
The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension.
Physical changes includes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness.
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situation, but can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony.

Question 37

Define cognitive interview (CI)

Answer 37

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.
It uses four main techniques , all based in well-established psychological knowledge of human memory - report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, and change perspective.

Question 38

Define active processing

Answer 38

Is where the person transforms or manipulates the material that is to be remembered.

Question 39

Define anxiety

Answer 39

State of emotional arousal where there is a feeling or experience of apprehension and uncertainty.

Question 40

Define articulatory process

Answer 40

Part of the phonological loop that repeats sounds or words to keep them in working memory until they are needed.

Question 41

Define chunking

Answer 41

Method of increasing short-term memory by grouping information into larger units.

Question 42

Define context dependent failure

Answer 42

Forgetting which occurs because the external cues at recall are different to those at the time of learning.

Question 43

Define cue dependent forgetting

Answer 43

Failure to recall information due to an absence of cuesor ‘tiggers’.

Question 44

Define forgetting

Answer 44

Failure to retrieve memories.

Question 45

Define inner scribe

Answer 45

Stores information about the physical relationship of items (part of the visuo-spatial sketchpad).

Question 46

Define interference theory

Answer 46

Memory can be disrupted not only by previous learning but also by what is learned in the future.

Question 47

Define mnemonics

Answer 47

Techniques used to improve memory.

Question 48

Define primary acoustic store

Answer 48

Part of the phonological loop which stores words heard.

Question 49

Define procedural memory

Answer 49

Long-term memory for “knowing how”.

Question 50

Define repression

Answer 50

Unpleasant material is pushed into the unconscious mind.

Question 51

Define schema

Answer 51

A cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information.

Question 52

Define state dependent failure

Answer 52

Forgetting which occurs because the emotional or physical state at recall is different to that at the time of learning.

Question 53

Define visual cache

Answer 53

Part of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that stores information about form and colour.