long-term memorythe relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)working memorya newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)explicit memoryretention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." (Also called declarative memory.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 330)effortful processingencoding that requires attention and conscious effort. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 330)automatic processingunconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 331)implicit memoryretention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection. (Also called nondeclarative memory.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 331)iconic memorya momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 332)echoic memorya momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 332)chunkingorganizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 333)mnemonicsmemory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 333)spacing effectthe tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 334)testing effectenhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 20, 335)shallow processingencoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 335)deep processingencoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 335)semantic memoryexplicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic memory). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)episodic memoryexplicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is semantic memory). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)hippocampusa neural center located in the limbic system; helps process for storage explicit (conscious) memories of facts and events. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 106, 340)memory consolidationthe neural storage of a long-term memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)flashbulb memorya clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 342)long-term potentiation (LTP)an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 342)primingthe activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 165, 345)encoding specificity principlethe idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 345)mood-congruent memorythe tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 346)serial position effectour tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 347)anterograde amnesiaan inability to form new memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 351)retrograde amnesiaan inability to retrieve information from one's past. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 351)proactive interferencethe forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 354)retroactive interferencethe backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 354)repressionin psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 355, 581)reconsolidationa process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 356)misinformation effectoccurs when misleading information has distorted one's memory of an event. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 357)source amnesiafaulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 358)déjà vuthat eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 358)cognitionall the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 365, 498)concepta mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 365)prototypea mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 365)creativitythe ability to produce new and valuable ideas. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)convergent thinkingnarrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)divergent thinkingexpanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)algorithma methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 370)heuristica simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 370)insighta sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 304, 370)confirmation biasa tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 371)fixation(1) in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving. (2) in personality theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 371, 581)mental seta tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 371)intuitionan effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 372)representativeness heuristicestimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 372)availability heuristicestimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 373)overconfidencethe tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 375)belief perseveranceclinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 376)framingthe way an issue is posed; how an issue is worded can significantly affect decisions and judgments. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 376)languageour spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 381)phonemein a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 381)morphemein a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 382)grammarin a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language's set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 382)babbling stagebeginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 384)one-word stagethe stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 384)two-word stagebeginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 384)telegraphic speechearly speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 384)aphasiaimpairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 387)Broca's areahelps control language expression—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 388)Wernicke's areaa brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 388)linguistic determinismthe strong form of Whorf's hypothesis—that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 389)linguistic influencethe weaker form of "linguistic relativity"—the idea that language affects thought (thus our thinking and world view is "relative to" our cultural language). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 389)
