Psychology Chapter 8

Implicit Memory

A memory that affects how we behave without our conscious awareness of the memory itself.

Bias

A systematic distortion in perception, cognition, or memory as a result of some aspect of one's currents psychology.

Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon (tot)

A type of blocking where there is a powerful sensation that a word of name is remembered but somehow out of reach.

Suggestibility

A type of misattribution where a memory originates in suggestions made to a person by someone else.

Rich False Memory

A vivid false memory replete with rich detail and emotional content.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Actively repeating or thinking about information so that it remains in short-term memory.

Retrieval Cue

Any hint or association that helps one retrieve a long-term memory.

Explicit Memory (declarative Memory)

Conscious memories for personal experiences (episodic memory) of facts about the world (semantic memory).

Memory

From the cognitive perspective, memory involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. Neuroscientists are more likely to define memory as learning-induced changes in the activity of neurons.

Procedural Memory

Implicit memory for skills involving motor coordination.

Chunk

Individual items that are grouped together in memory because they are meaningfully associated with one another.

Absentmindedness

Lapses of attention that result in a failure to recall information. Can result from a failure t encode properly of lapse of attention/ preoccupation at the moment of retrieval.

Episodic Memory

Memories acquired through personal experience. Episodic memories are one subtype of explicit (declarative) memory.

Semantic Encoding

Memory encoding according to the meaning of stimulus.

Acoustic Encoding

Memory encoding according to the sound of the stimulus being encoded.

Visual Encoding

Memory encoding to the visual appearance of the stimulus.

Semantic Memory

Memory for facts one has learned, as opposed to personal experiences. Semantic memory is one type of explicit (declarative) memory.

False Memory

Memory of an event that did not actually occur. In some cases, blatantly inaccurate recollection of details of an event that did occur may also be considered a false memory.

Short-term memory (STM)

Memory store used for attending to information in the short term. Short term memory is limited in the length of time the memory can remain active- no longer than about 20 seconds. it is also limited that can be stored. No more than about four or five items or chunks of information. STM is one component of the modal model of memory.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Mentally encoding information into long-term memory in a way that is personally meaningful and associates the new information with information that already exists in long- term memory.

Transience

The "fading" of memories from long-term memory. Transience describes what most people mean when they say "forgetting."

Memory Span

The amount of information that can be held in a memory store at any one time. The capacity of short term memory averages 4 to 5 items or chunks of information.

Long-term memory

The deepest level of encoding of information- a theoretically limited memory store that contains memories for facts, autobiographical events, and learned skills. LTM is a component of the modal model of memory.

Forgetting Curve

The discovery made by Hermann Ebbinghaus that forgetting follows a pattern according to the passage of time, with most memory loss occurring rapidly, and the pace then slowing.

Encoding

The memory process "translating" sensory impressions into meaningful perceptions that may then be stored as memory.

Storage

The memory process whereby meaningful perceptions are retained as memory.

Sensory Memory

The memory stage that very briefly stores large amounts of fleeting sensory impressions. Sensory memory is comprised of iconic store (visual) and echoic (auditory).

Levels or processing framework

The model of memory originated by Fergis Craik and Robert Lockhart which denies the existence of distinct memory stages or stores. Instead, it proposes that the more deeply an item is processed, the more likely it is to be recalled.

Interference Theory

The notion, subscribed to by most memory researchers, that problems in retrieving memories results from the interference of one memory with another. There are two types of interference: proactive and retroactive.

Consistency Bias

The tendency to recall one's past attitudes, feelings, and beliefs in a way that brings them in line with one's current attitudes, feelings, and beliefs.

Egocentric Bias

The tendency to recall past events in a way that enhances one's current view of oneself.

Childhood Amnesia

The term used to describe the fact that adults do not have accurate, coherent memory for events of early childhood. Theorists currently propose that coherent memories are not retained for events prior to the fourth birthday.

Modal model of memory

The traditional model of memory initially devised by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin. The modal model views memory as consisting of three stages or stores: sensory memory, short term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).

Blocking

When a memory has been encoded properly and primed by a retrieval cue yet cannot be retrieved.

Misattribution

When a memory is attributed to a source other than its actual origin.

Retroactive Interference

When a new memory interferes with the retrieval of an old memory.

Misinformation effect

When a person exposed to incorrect information about an event they have experienced later recall the event in a distorted manner by incorporating the false information.

Proactive Interference

When an old memory interferes with retrieval of new memory.

Persistence

When an unpleasant memory intrudes upon a person's thoughts against his or her will.

Repetition Priming

When performance on a task improves as a result of previous implicit exposure.

Context-dependent Memory

When retrieval of a memory is enhanced in contexts that were similar to the one that existed when the memory was encoded.

State-dependent Memory

When retrieval of memory is enhanced by internal states such as mood or drug effects that were present when the memory was encoded.

Working Memory

Working memory is defined in different ways by different theorists, and is often used synonymously for (or in place of) short-term memory. As used here, the term describes "what happens" in short-term memory when information is manipulated or processed "online."

Retrieval

recognizing or recalling something from long-term memory.