Chapter and Topic of this Review Guide:Chapter 8: Memory

Vocab Term / Definition of Term / Example
Memory / Learning over time by storing and retrieving information
Encoding / Putting information into memory
Storage / Keeping information in the brain
Retrieval / Taking information out of storage
Sensory memory / Very brief recordings of sensory information
Short-term memory / Memory that holds limited amounts of information for a brief amount of time before being stored or forgotten; lasts 7 + 2 seconds
Long-term memory / Unlimited, permanent memory storage
Working memory / A subpart of short-term memory that contains current, conscious auditory and visual information along with retrieved information
Automatic processing / Unconscious encoding of aspects of information, including space, time, and frequency / You remember where the word you are trying to define was on the page
Effortful processing / Encoding that requires conscious effort / You remember the definition of a word because you work to know what it truly means.
Rehearsal / Conscious repetition of information to keep it in the working/short-term memory or encode to storage / In order to remember your classmate’s name, you repeat it several times in your head or aloud
Spacing effect / Tendency for studies spaced out evenly over a long period of time to be better than cramming / Studying for the Psych test for one hour each day for a week is better than cramming for 7 hours in one day
Serial position effect / Tendency to remember the beginning and ends of things but not the middle / You can remember the first few presidents and the last few presidents, but have trouble remembering those in the middle.
Visual encoding / Encoding of pictures / A word flashed quickly to you is in capital letters.
Acoustic encoding / Encoding of sounds / The word flashed quickly rhymes with ‘shame.’
Semantic encoding / Encoding of meanings / Would the word fit into this sentence: The boys played a ______of baseball.
Imagery / Mental picture / Visualizing a textbook when you read the word ‘textbook’
Mnemonics / Techniques to aid memory / ROY G. BIV helps people remember the order and colors of the rainbow
Chunking / Organizing information into sensible, convenient units / Turning 1776183019212010 into smaller pieces of info like 1776, 1830, 1921, and 2010
Iconic memory / A brief memory of visual stimuli / Remember a picture flashed quickly before our eyes
Echoic memory / A brief memory of auditory stimuli / Remember words or sounds from the past 3-4 seconds
Long-term potentiation / Increase in synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
Flashbulb memory / A clear memory of a poignant event or moment / Remembering where you were when the planes crashed on 9/11
Amnesia / Memory loss / Forgetting your identity after a stressful situation
Implicit memory/nondeclarative memory / A type of long-term memory, an unconscious recall of information / Learned skills, such as walking
Explicit memory/declarative memory / A type of long-term memory, a conscious recall of information / Learned facts, like the date of Independence Day
Hippocampus / A part of the limbic system that deals primarily with explicit memory storage
Recall / Retrieving previously learned information / Having to answer a short answer question on the test
Recognition / Simply identifying previously learned information / Having to choose the correct answer for a multiple choice question
Relearning / A process that reduces the time spent learning material again
Priming / Activating memory by using associations / You are more likely to spell ‘hair/hare’ as h-a-r-e when an image of a rabbit is elicited first
Déjà vu / Sense of “experiencing this before”
Mood-congruent memory / Tendency to recall events or experiences of moods similar to our current state / If you are currently depressed, you are incline to remember negative things and events more
Proactive interference / Prior learning interfering with the recall of new information / If you are learning both French and Spanish, but had the French test before the Spanish test and can no longer remember any Spanish
Retroactive interference / New information interfering with the recall of prior learning / You study for both your psych test and chem test, but study for the chem test first. After studying psych, you can no longer remember anything you previously studied about chem..
Repression / A defense mechanism that gets rid of underlying sexual thoughts, feelings, and memories / You repress a memory of being sexually abused as a child because that would interfere too much with your current life and well-being.
Misinformation effect / Adding misleading information into one’s memory of an event / By asking what time the two cars crashed into each other rather than simply hit each other, there is now a feeling that the cars were travelling faster because of word choice (‘crash’).
Source amnesia / Misattributing the source or context of an event / You write a new, original song that’s not really original because it was unintentionally based on a song you’ve heard in the past
Authors of Important Study / Basic of What Was Done / Lesson(s) learned from the study
Hermann Ebbinghaus / Tried to recall as many nonsense syllables as he could, and used repetition as a way to increase retention / Rehearsal is an effective tool for memory; the Ebbinghaus curve shows that the amount of information remembered depends on how much time one spends learning them; learning quickly = forgetting quickly
Elizabeth Loftus / Used diction and framing of questions to manipulate memories of events / The misinformation effect is prevalent and quite easy to do; revealed the malleability of memory