Memory Key Terms

Question 1

Attention

Answer 1

Focusing on a stimulus in our SR to transfer to STM.

Question 2

Capacity

Answer 2

How much information can be held in any part of the memory.

Question 3

Central Executive

Answer 3

Directs attention to particular tasks, determining allocation of the brain’s resources for them.
Diverts info to other SLAVE SYSTEMS
- Very small capacity

Question 4

Decay

Answer 4

When memory is forgotten as a result of limited duration.

Question 5

Declarative

Answer 5

Memories that can be consciously recalled (e.g facts or events) - episodic & semantic memory.

Question 6

Displacement

Answer 6

When memory is lost due to a limited capacity.

Question 7

Dual-task performance

Answer 7

The ability to perform two different tasks at once (one being visual, one being aural, e.g.)

Question 8

Duration

Answer 8

How long information can be kept in any part of the memory.

Question 9

Ecological Validity

Answer 9

Often an issue with lab experiments - refers to how much research findings can be generalised to the real world.

Question 10

Encoding/coding

Answer 10

How information to be remembered is changed to be processed and stored in the memory.

Question 11

Episodic Buffer

Answer 11

General stores that allows both sound & visual info to be bound together. Offers a sense of time sequencing. Record events (episodes) happening.

Question 12

Episodic Memory

Answer 12

• Part of LTM
• Stores autobiographical record of events
• Contains what, where, when
• Constructed, not reproductive
• Time-stamped

Question 13

Eye-Witness Testimony

Answer 13

When people who have witnessed a crime are interviewed by the police.

Question 14

Forgetting

Answer 14

Inability to recall information from memory.

Question 15

Laboratory Experiments

Answer 15

The most common method used in memory research where the data is collected in a controlled environment.

Question 16

Long-term Memory

Answer 16

Memory which can last forever and is thought to have unlimited capacity.

Question 17

Models of Memory

Answer 17

Ways of explaining the structure & process of memories. They are theoretical models which explain how it may work.

Question 18

Phonological Loop

Answer 18

Stores speech-based sounds for brief periods. Made up of phonological store (briefly stores acoustic info) & Inner ear (sub-vocal repetition).

Question 19

Proactive Interference

Answer 19

Old information interferes with the retrieval of new information.

Question 20

Procedural Memory

Answer 20

• Part of LTM
• Unconscious
• Memory of skills & bodily movements
• Acquired via repetition 7 practice
• Non-declarative

Question 21

Rehearsal

Answer 21

Repeating information over & over

Question 23

Semantic Memory

Answer 23

• Records facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge of the external world acquired
• Independent of time & personal experience of discovery
• Declarative

Question 24

Short-term Memory

Answer 24

Immediate memory which has limited capacity and duration.

Question 25

Unitary

Answer 25

(Singular) It is thought that the STM and LTM are singular stores in the MSM with no different compartments within them.

Question 26

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

Answer 26

Stores mental images in terms of what they look like and their place in the visual field. (e.g. used for reaching for a cup of coffee)