AP Psych- Chapter 7

Episodic memory

Memories of events experienced by a person or that take place in the person's presence.

Prospective memory

Memory to perform an act in the future, as at a certain time or when a certain event occurs.

Priming

The activation of specific associations in memory, often as a result of repetition and without making a conscious effort to access the memory.

relearning

a measure of retention. material is usually relearned more quickly than it is learned initially

icon

a mental representation of a visual stimulus that is held briefly in sensory memory.

echo

a mental representation of an auditory stimulus (sound) that is held briefly in sensory memory

chunk

a stimulus or group of stimuli that is perceived as a discrete piece of information

dissociative amnesia

amnesia thought to stem from psychological conflict or trauma

memory trace

an assumed change in the nervous system that reflects the impression made by a stimulus. memory traces are said to be "held" in sensory registers.

anterograde amnesia

failure to remember events that occurred after physical trauma because of the effects of the trauma

repression

in Freud's psychodynamic theory, the ejection of anxiety- evoking ideas from conscious awareness

displace

in memory theory, to cause information to be lost from short- term memory by adding new information

status- dependent memory

information that is better retrieved in the physiological or emotional state in which it was encoded and stored, or learned

nonsense syllables

meaningless sets of two consonants, with a vowel sandwiched in between, that are used to study

implicit memory

memory that is suggested (implied), but not plainly expressed, as illustrated in the things that people *do* but do not state clearly.

semantic code

mental representation of information according to its meaning

Visual code

mental representation of information as a picture.

acoustic code

mental representation of information as a sequence of sounds

paired associates

nonsense syllables presented in pairs in experiments that measure recall

recall

retrieval or reconstruction or learned material

working memory

same as short term memory

savings

the difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn a list and the number of repetitions required to relearn the list after a certain amount of time has elapsed

tip of the tongue phenomenon

the feeling that information is stored in memory although it cannot be readily retrieved. also called the feeling of knowing experience

proactive interference

the interference by old learning with the ability to retrieve material learned recently

retroactive interference

the interference of new learning with the ability to retrieve material learned previously

elaborative rehearsal

the kind of coding in which new information is related to information that is already known

retrieval

the location of stored information and its return to consciousness; the third stage of information processing.

eidetic imagery

the maintenance of detailed visual memories over several minutes

long- term memory

the type or stage of memory capable of relatively permanent storage

sensory memory

the type or stage of memory first encountered by a stimulus. sensory memory holds impressions briefly, but long enough so that a series of perceptions are psychologically continuous

engram

(1) an assumed electrical circuit in the brain that corresponds to a memory trace. (2) an assumed chemical change in the brain that accompanies learning.

Semantic memory

General knowledge, as opposed to episodic memory.

method of savings

a measure of retention in which the difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn a list and the number of repetitions required to relearn the list after a certain amount of time has elapsed is calculated.

hippocampus

a structure in the limbic system that plays an important role in the formation of new memories

sensory register

a system of memory that holds information briefly, but long enough so that it can be processed further. there may be a sensory register for every sense

schema

a way of mentally representing the world, such as a belief or an expectation, that can influence perception of persons, objects, and situations.

long- term potentiation (LTP)

enhanced efficiency in synaptic transmission that follows brief, rapid stimulation

retrograde amnesia

failure to remember events that occurred prior to physical trauma because of the effects of the trauma

recognition

in information processing, the easiest memory task, involving identification of objects or events encountered before

infantile amnesia

inability to recall events that occurred prior to the age of 2 or 3. also termed childhood amnesia

context- dependent memory

information that is better retrieved in the context in which it was encoded and stored, or learned

rote

mechanical associative learning that is based on repetition

Retrospective memory

memory for past events, activities, and learning experiences, as shown by explicit (episodic and semantic) and implicit memories.

explicit memory

memory that clearly and distinctly expresses (explicates) specific information.

maintenance rehearsal

mental repetition of information in order to keep it in memory

metamemory

self- awareness of the ways in which memory functions, allowing the person to encode, store, and retrieve information effectively

storage

the maintenance of information over time; the second stage of information processing

memory

the processes by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved

saccadic eye movement

the rapid jumps made by a person's eyes as they fixate on different points

echoic memory

the sensory register that briefly holds mental representations of auditory stimuli

iconic memory

the sensory register that briefly holds mental representations of visual stimuli

serial- position effect

the tendency to recall more accurately the first and last items in a series.

primacy effect

the tendency to recall the initial items in a series of items

recency effect

the tendency to recall the last items in a series of items

short- term memory

the type or stage of memory that can hold information for up to a minute or so after the trace of the stimulus decays. also called working memory.

interference theory

the view that we may forget stored material because other learning interferes with it

Encoding

Modifying information so that it can be placed in memory; the first stage of information processing.