Assignment 7 - Quiz 2: Memory

George Sperling

Tested people's sensory (iconic) memory

Encoding

The process of placing information into the mind

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to remember events that happened prior to the brain injury

Hippocampus

Part of the brain that aids long-term memory

Intentional learning

Deliberately placing information into your mind

Chunking

Grouping items into smaller segments

Overlearning

A method for improving your memory, immediately available for recall, an elaborate process that involves practice, memorization, recitation and rehearsal

Interference

Anything that inhibits your brain's ability to remember

Prefrontal cortex

Helps you work towards a goal, control urges, understand future consequences, delay gratification

Incidental learning

Learning without intention

Mnemonic device

Memory trick to give you cues and aid your ability to retrieve information

Repression

Moving difficult information from the conscious to the unconscious mind

Long-term memory

Permanent storage of information

Recovered memory

Remembering long-forgotten memories with someone's help

Sematic memory

Remembers general ideas

Episodic memory

Remembers specific events

Short-term memory

Remembers the current score of a tennis game, creates episodic and semantic memories, remembers only the first and end of long lists, chunks information

H.M.'s operation on the hippocampus

Short-term memory doesn't work well either, long-term memory is severely affected, damage to that brain area results in amnesia

Purpose of encoding

To acquire information into the brain