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unit 7A Terms
Memory
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Memory | The persistance of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information. |
Encoding | The processing of storing information into the memory system. |
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 system. |
Short-term Memory | Activated memory that holds a few items briefly 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 focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory. |
Parallel Processing | The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. |
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 effort and conscious effort. |
Rehearsal | The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage. |
Spacing Effect | Tendency for distributed or practice to yield, 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 sound 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 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 | An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory. |
Flashbulb memory | A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. |
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; helps process explicit memories for storage. |
Recall | A measure of memory which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-in-the blank test. |
Recognition | A measure of memory in which that person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test. |
Relearning | A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time. |
Priming | The activation, often often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. |
Déja Vu | That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from 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. |
Misinformation Effect | Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event. |
Source Amnesia | Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. (Also called misattribution) |
Eyewitness Memory/ Testimony | An individual's memory of an event, often a crime or an accident of some kind, that was personally witnessed. |