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CH 5 Griggs
Psychology: A Concise Introduction (6th Ed): Memory
Term | Definition |
---|---|
sensory memory (SM) | The set of sensory registers, one for each of our senses, that serve as holding places for incoming sensory information until it can be attended to, interpreted, and encoded into short-term memory. |
iconic memory | The visual sensory register that holds an exact copy of the incoming visual input but only for a brief period of time, less than 1 second. |
temporal integration procedure | An experimental procedure in which two meaningless visual patterns that produce a meaningful pattern if integrated are presented sequentially with the time delay between their presentations varied. |
Sperling’s full-report procedure | An experimental procedure in which, following the brief presentation of a matrix of unrelated consonants, the participant has to attempt to recall all of the letters in the matrix. |
Sperling’s partial-report procedure | An experimental procedure in which, following the brief presentation of a matrix of unrelated consonants, the participant is given an auditory cue about which row of the matrix to recall. |
short-term memory (STM) | The memory stage with a small capacity (7 ± 2 chunks) and brief duration (< 30 seconds) that we are consciously aware of and in which we do our problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. |
memory span task | A memory task in which the participant is given a series of items one at a time and then has to recall the items in the order in which they were presented. |
memory span | The average number of items an individual can remember across a series of memory span trials. |
chunk | A meaningful unit in a person’s memory. |
distractor task | A memory task in which a small amount of information is briefly presented and then the participant is distracted from rehearsing the information for a variable period of time, after which the participant has to recall the information. |
maintenance rehearsal | A type of rehearsal in short-term memory in which the information is repeated over and over again in order to maintain it. |
working memory | A more detailed version of short-term memory that includes the mechanisms that allow short-term memory to accomplish its tasks. |
long-term memory (LTM) | The memory stage in which information is stored for a long period of time (perhaps permanently) and whose capacity is essentially unlimited. |
explicit (declarative) memory | Long-term memory for factual knowledge and personal experiences. This type of memory requires a conscious effort to remember and entails making declarations about the information remembered. |
semantic memory | Explicit memory for factual knowledge. |
episodic memory | Explicit memory for personal experiences. |
implicit (nondeclarative) memory | Long-term memory for procedural tasks, classical conditioning, and priming effects. This type of memory does not require conscious awareness or the need to make declarations about the information remembered. |
procedural memory | Implicit memory for cognitive and motor tasks that have a physical procedural aspect to them. |
priming | The implicit influence of an earlier presented stimulus on the response to a later stimulus. This influence is independent of conscious memory for the earlier stimulus. |
amnesic | A person with severe memory deficits following brain surgery or injury. |
anterograde amnesia | The inability to form new explicit long-term memories for events following surgery or trauma to the brain. Explicit memories formed before the surgery or trauma are left intact. |
retrograde amnesia | The disruption of memory for the past, especially episodic information for events before, especially just before, surgery or trauma to the brain. |
infantile/child amnesia | Our inability as adults to remember events that occurred in our lives before about 3 years of age. |
free recall task | A memory task in which a list of items is presented one at a time and then the participant is free to recall them in any order. |
primacy effect | In memory, the superior recall of the early portion of a list relative to the middle of the list in a one-trial free recall task. |
recency effect | The superior recall of the latter portion of a list relative to the middle of the list in a one-trial free recall task. |
encoding | The process of moving information from one memory stage to the next (from sensory memory into short-term memory or from short-term memory to long-term memory). |
storage | The process of maintaining information in a memory stage. |
retrieval | The process of bringing information stored in long-term memory into short-term memory. |
automatic processing | Memory processing that occurs subconsciously and does not require attention. |
effortful processing | Memory processing that occurs consciously and requires attention. |
levels-of-processing theory | "A theory of information processing in memory that assumes that semantic processing, especially elaborative semantic processing, leads to better long-term memory." |
elaborative rehearsal | A type of rehearsal in short-term memory in which incoming information is related to information from long-term memory to encode it into long-term memory. |
self-reference effect | The superior long-term memory for information related to oneself at time of encoding into long-term memory. |
encoding specificity principle | The principle that the environmental cues (both internal and external) present at the time information is encoded into long-term memory serve as the best retrieval cues for the information. |
state-dependent memory | Long-term memory retrieval is best when a person’s physiological state at the time of encoding and retrieval of the information is the same. |
mood-dependent memory | Long-term memory retrieval is best when a person’s mood state at the time of encoding and retrieval of the information is the same. |
mood-congruence effect | Tendency to retrieve experiences and information that are congruent with a person’s current mood. |
mnemonic | A memory aid, some strategy or technique you use to help you remember information. |
method of loci | A mnemonic using a familiar room or place, associate new information using bizarre mental imagery to encode information into your brain. Then you just think of that room or place and recall that information using the bizarre mental imagery as cues. |
peg-word system | A mnemonic in which the items in a list to be remembered are associated with the sequential items in a memorized jingle and then the list is retrieved by going through the jingle and retrieving the associated items. |
spacing (distributed study) effect | Superior long-term memory for spaced study versus massed study (cramming). |
recall | A measure of long-term memory retrieval that requires the reproduction of the information with essentially no retrieval cues. |
recognition | A measure of long-term memory retrieval that only requires the identification of the information in the presence of retrieval cues. |
relearning | The savings method of measuring long-term memory retrieval in which the measure is the amount of time saved when learning information for the second time. |
encoding failure theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the failure to encode the information into long-term memory. |
storage decay theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the decay of the biological representation of the information and that periodic usage of the information will help to maintain it in storage. |
interference theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to other information in memory interfering and thereby making the to-be-remembered information inaccessible. |
proactive interference | The disruptive effect of prior learning on the retrieval of new information. |
retroactive interference | The disruptive effect of new learning on the retrieval of old information. |
cue-dependent theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the unavailability of the retrieval cues necessary to locate the information in long-term memory. |
tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon | The failure to recall specific information from memory combined with partial recall and the feeling that recall is imminent. |
schemas | Frameworks for our knowledge about people, objects, events, and actions that allow us to organize and interpret information about our world. |
source misattribution | Attributing a memory to the wrong source, resulting in a false memory. |
false memory | An inaccurate memory that feels as real as an accurate memory. |
misinformation effect | The distortion of a memory by exposure to misleading information. |