Memory
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Created by:
hmkirkpatrick on October 21, 2010
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56 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 memory | the process by which we encode, store, and retrive information |
| encoding | the process of recording information in a for usable to memory |
| storage | the maintenance of material saved in memory |
| retrieval | when material in memory storage has to be located and brought into awareness to be useful |
| sensory memory | the initial momentary storage of information lasting only an instant |
| short term memory | memory that holds information for 15 to 25 seconds |
| long term memory | memory that stores information on a relatively permanent basis, although it may be difficult to retrieve |
| iconic memory | reflects information from the visual system |
| echoic memory | stores auditory information coming from the ears |
| chunk | a meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory |
| rehersal | the repition of information that has entered short term memory |
| working memory | a set of active temporary memory stores that actively manipulate and rehearse information |
| central executive | processor involved in reasoning and decison making |
| visual store | specializes in visual and spatial information |
| verbal store | holds and manipulates material relating to speech, words and numbers |
| episodic buffer | contains information that represents episodes or events |
| serial position effect | the ability to recall information in a list depending on where in the list an item appears |
| primary effect | items presented early in a list are remembered better |
| recency effect | items presented late in a list are remembered best |
| declarative memory | memory for factual information: names faces dates and the like |
| procedural memory | memory for skills and habits such as riding a bike, hitting a baseball and sometimes reffered to as nondeclarative memory |
| semantic memory | memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that are used to deduce other facts |
| episodic memory | memory for events that occur in a particular time, place or context |
| semantic networks | mental representations of clusters and interconnected information |
| spreading activation | activating one memory triggers the activation of realted memories in a process |
| engram | the term for the physical memory trace that corresponds to a memory |
| hippocampus | plays a central role in the consolidation of memories |
| medial temporal lobes | acts as neurological e-mail system; where information is passed along to the brains cortex |
| amygdala | involved in memories involving emotion |
| long term potentiation | shows that certain neural pathways become easily excited when a new response is being learned |
| consolidation | memories become fixed and stable in long term memory |
| tip-of-the-tongue phenom | the inabilty to recall information that one realizes one knows - a result of the difficulty of retriving information from long term memory |
| recall | memory task in which specific information must be retrieved |
| recognition | memory task in which individuals are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it in the past or to identify it from a list of elternatives |
| levels-of-processing theory | the theory of memory that emphasizes the degree to which new material is mentally analyzed |
| explicit memory | intentional or conscious recollection of information |
| implicit memory | memories of which people are not conscioulsy aware but which can affect subsequently performance and behavior |
| priming | a phenom in which exposure to a word or concept later makes it easier to recall related information even when there is no conscious memory of the word or concept |
| flashbulb memories | memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that are so vivid as id they represented a snapshot of an event |
| source amnesia | occurs when an individual has a memory for some material but cannot recall where he or she encountered it before |
| constructive processes | processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events |
| schemas | organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored and recalled |
| repressed memories | recollections of events that are initially so shocking that the mind responds by pushing them into the unconscious |
| false memories | develop when people are unable to recall the source of a memory of a particualar event about which they have only vague recollections |
| autobiographical memories | our recollections of circumstances and episodes from our own lives |
| decay | the loss of information in memory through its nonuse |
| memory traces | the physical changes that take place in the brain when new material is learned |
| interferance | the phenom by which information in memory disrupts the recall of other information |
| cue-dependent forgetting | forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory |
| proactive interferance | interference in ehich information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer material |
| retroacitve interference | interference in which there is difficulty in the recall of information learned earlier because of later exposure to different material. |
| Alzheimers disease | an illness characterized in part by sever memory problems |
| Amnesia | memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties |
| retrograde amnesia | amnesia in which memory is lost for occurances prior to a certain event |
| anterograde amnesia | amnesia in which memory is lost for events that follow an injury |
| Korsakoff's syndrome | a disease that afflicts long-term alcoholics, leaving some abilities intact but including hallucinations and a tendency to repeat the same story |
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