Psychology: Chapter 7-Memory-Important definitions

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The retention of information over time.

Question 2

What is a memory illusion?

Answer 2

False but subjectively compelling memory. In better terms, this is a false memory that we earnestly believe to be true.

Question 3

What is sensory memory?

Answer 3

Brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short-term memory. It is the ability to retain sensory information after the stimuli is gone.

Question 4

What is iconic memory?

Answer 4

Visual sensory memory.

Question 5

What is echoic memory?

Answer 5

Auditory sensory memory

Question 6

What is short term memory?

Answer 6

Memory system that retains information for a short duration of time.

Question 7

What is decay?

Answer 7

Fading away of information from memory over time.

Question 8

What is interference?

Answer 8

Loss of information from memory because of competition from additional information.

Question 9

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 9

Interference with retention of old information due to actively bringing in new information.

Question 10

What is proactive interference?

Answer 10

Interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information. (Think of a PRO tennis player (who is also active) trying to learn squash, it isn’t the same and the tennis aspect, interferes with learning the new squash technique)

Question 11

What is the “Magic Number”?

Answer 11

The span of short term memory according to George Miller. 7 + or - 2 pieces of information.

Question 12

What is chunking?

Answer 12

Organizing information into meaningful groupings, allowing us to extend the span (range) of STM.
ex: KACFJNABISBCFUI vs. NHLPEICBCNBAMLA
The second presents groupings of meaningful acronyms that make it easier to remember and thus increase the span (range) of information that can be held.

Question 13

What is rehearsal?

Answer 13

Repeating information to extend the duration of retention in STM and promote the likelihood of consolidation (transfer into LTM stores).

Question 14

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 14

Constantly repeating information to maintain it in memory until it is no longer useful. (Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in STM)
ex: repeating a phone number so you don’t forget it, until you call the preson

Question 15

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 15

Linking stimuli in a meaningful way to improve retention of information in STM

Question 16

What are levels of processing?

Answer 16

Depth of transforming information. The more deeply we process something, the more likely we are to remember it.

Question 17

What is long term memory?

Answer 17

Relatively enduring retention of information stored regarding our facts, experiences, and skills.

Question 18

What is permastore?

Answer 18

Type of LTM that appears to be permanent.

Question 19

What is the primacy effect?

Answer 19

Tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well.

Question 20

What is the recency effect?

Answer 20

Tendency to remember words at the ends of lists recently well.

Question 21

What is the von Restorff effect?

Answer 21

Tendency to remember stimuli that are odd or stick out from other stimuli. (Ex: out of the whole sentence that you are about the read you probably DEATH will remember one most of all.)

Question 22

What is the serial position curve?

Answer 22

Recollection ability of participants are plotted. Percent correct against position in list. The Primacy effect, recency effect and von Restorff effect are all shown.

Question 23

What is semantic memory?

Answer 23

Our knowledge of facts about the world.

Question 24

What is episodic memory?

Answer 24

Recollection of events of our lives.

Question 25

What is explicit memory?

Answer 25

Memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness.

Question 26

What is implicit memory?

Answer 26

Memories we don’t deliberately remember or reflect on consciously.

Question 27

What is procedural memory?

Answer 27

Memory for how to do a task, including motor skills and habit.

Question 28

What is priming?

Answer 28

Our ability to identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we’ve encountered similar stimuli.
(ex: You are shown the word queen, then asked to complete this K_ _ _. Due to priming, you pick king.

Question 29

What is encoding?

Answer 29

Process of getting information into our memory banks.

Question 30

What is a mnemonic?

Answer 30

A learning aid, strategy, or device that enhances recall.

Question 31

What is storage?

Answer 31

Process of keeping information in memory

Question 32

What are schemas?

Answer 32

Mental model or script that we’ve stored in memory for how certain things work.

Question 33

What is retrieval?

Answer 33

Reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores.

Question 34

What are retrieval cues?

Answer 34

Hints that make it easier to recall information.

Question 35

What is recall?

Answer 35

Generating previously remembered information.

Question 36

What is recognition?

Answer 36

Selecting previously remembered information from an array of options.

Question 37

What is relearning?

Answer 37

Reacquiring knowledge that has been previously learned but forgotten over time.

Question 38

What is the difference between mass practice and distribute practice?

Answer 38

Mass practice is like cramming. It is studying large amounts of information over a brief time.
Distributed practice is studying small amounts of information over a large period of time.

Question 39

What is the TOT phenomemon?

Answer 39

Tip of the tongue. Experience of knowing that we know something but being unable to access the information.

Question 40

What is encoding specificity?

Answer 40

Phenomenon in which we remember something better when exposed to the same conditions in which we encoded the information.

Question 41

What is context dependent learning?

Answer 41

Memory recall is best when the retrieval context matches the encoding context.

Question 42

What is state-dependent learning?

Answer 42

Superior retrieval of information when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding.

Question 43

What is LTP?

Answer 43

Gradual strengthening of synaptic contacts that are frequently stimulated over time.

Question 44

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 44

Loss of memories from our past.

Question 45

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 45

Inability to encode new memories from our experiences.

Question 46

What is meta-memory?

Answer 46

Knowledge about our own memory abilities and limitations. (ex: kids (including Gen) think they can remember every word in a list whilst more mature individuals such as Daniel are more cognizant of their memory capabilities)

Question 47

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 47

Inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age.

Question 48

What is a flashbulb memory?

Answer 48

Emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detail.

Think of Jonah Hill, its an emotional memory with “vivid and descriptive detail”

Question 49

What is source monitoring confusion?

Answer 49

Lack of clarity about the source of a memory.

a distinct memory that we can’t be sure if it came from a dream or not, i.e. we aren’t sure of the source

Question 50

What is cryptomnesia?

Answer 50

Failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else. (Basically stealing people’s work, thinking it was our own.)

Question 51

What are suggestive memory techniques?

Answer 51

Procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have occurred.

Question 52

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 52

Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place.