Chapter 9

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Flashbulb memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory systems.

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Rehearsal

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yeild better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.

Visual encoding

The encoding of picture images.

Acoustic encoding

The encoding of sound, especially the soud of words.

Semantic encoding

The encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words.

Imagery

Mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding.

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be neural basis for learning and memory.

Amnesia

The loss of memory.

Implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Explicit memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare."

Hippocampus

A neural center that is located in the limbic system and helps process explicit memories for storage.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

Relearning

A memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.

Deja vu

That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.

Proactive interference

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Source amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.