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.