Intro to Psychology Chapter 7: Memory
Flashbulb Memory
A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the lambic system, helps process explicit memories for storage.
Working Memory
A newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.
Reconsolidation
A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.
Short-term Memory
Activated memory that holds a few items (such as the seven digits of a phone number while calling) before the information is stored or forgotten.
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
An increase in a cell's firing potential. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
Retrieval Cue
Any stimulus (event, feeling, place, etc.) linked to a specific memory.
Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Testing Effect
Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes revered to as the retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.
Semantic Memory
Explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic memory).
Episodic Memory
Explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is semantic memory).
Source Amnesia
Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined.
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness the thoughts, feeling, and memories that arouse anxiety.
Memory Trace
Lasting physical change in the brain as a memory forms.
Amnesia
Literally "without memory" --a loss of memory, often due to Brian trauma, injury or disease.
Recognition
Memory demonstrated by identifying items learned , as on a multiple-choice test.
Recall
Memory demonstrated by retrieving information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
Relearning
Memory demonstrated by time saved when learning material a second time.
Serial Positioning Effect
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
Priming
This activation, often unconsciously of particular associations in memory.
Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of everyday information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well learned information, such as word meanings.
Misinformation Effect
When a memory has been corrupted by misleading information.
Explicit Memory
Retention of facts and personal events you can consciously retrieve. ( Also called declarative memory).
Implicit Memory
Retention of learned skills, or classically conditioned assosiations, without conscious awareness. (Also called nondeclarative memory).
Déjà Vu
That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.
Retroactive Interfearence
The backward acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information.
Proactive Interference
The forward acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information.
Sensory Memory
The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
Memory Consolidation
The neural storage of a long-term memory.
Memory
The persistance of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
Encoding
The process of getting information into the memory system.
Retrieval
The process of getting information out of memory storage.
Storage
The process of retaining encoded information over time.
Long-term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
Spacing Effect
The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study of practice (cramming).
Mood-congruent Memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with your current good or bad mood.