Psychology Lecture: Memory Storage, Retrieval, and Forgetting

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering short-term memory, working memory components, long-term memory organization, retrieval, reconstructive memory errors, and theories of forgetting.

Short-Term Memory

A temporary memory buffer lasting typically between 10 to 20 seconds that can be maintained indefinitely through active rehearsal, but decays due to interference.

Chunking

The cognitive process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful patterns or units to increase short-term memory capacity.

Seven Plus or Minus Two

The capacity limit of human short-term memory identified by George Miller, stating that an average person can hold between five and nine chunks of information.

Phonological Loop

The component of working memory that serves as an inner voice, responsible for repeating, processing, and rehearsing verbal and auditory information.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

The component of working memory responsible for visualizing, maintaining, and manipulating visual images and spatial orientations.

Flashbulb Memories

Unusually vivid, detailed, and stable long-term recollections of specific, emotionally significant or impactful events.

Schema

An organized cluster of conceptual knowledge about the world, objects, or behaviors that automatically activates to guide interpretation and recall.

Semantic Networks

Memory organization structures where concepts are linked by their degree of relatedness; thinking about one concept activates neighboring, related concepts in the brain.

Parallel Distributed Processing

A cognitive model where multiple brain areas activate connections simultaneously, allowing complex information and memories to be retrieved in the background.

Reinstating the Context

The process of physically or mentally returning to the environment where an event occurred to trigger retrieval cues and facilitate recall.

Memory Reconstruction

The process of rebuilding memories by reactivating original neural networks, which leaves them malleable and susceptible to distortion and contamination.

Source Monitoring Error

A memory misattribution that occurs when a person remembers information or events accurately but confuses or misidentifies the origin or source.

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

A reverse-exponential curve showing that forgetting occurs rapidly initially (falling to 58% after 20 minutes, 44% after 1 hour, and losing two-thirds within a day) before leveling off.

Recall Measure

An assessment of retention that requires an individual to reproduce stored information without any retrieval cues or provided choices, such as on an essay test.

Recognition Measure

An assessment of retention that requires an individual to identify previously learned information from an array of presented options, such as on a multiple-choice exam.

Relearning Measure

A measure of retention that calculates how much time or effort is saved when memorizing information a second time after it has been forgotten.

Ineffective Encoding

A failure of memory that occurs when lack of attention, lack of understanding, or false confidence prevents information from being properly stored initially.

Decay Theory

The explanation of forgetting proposing that memory traces fade because glia cells actively prune and recycle unused synaptic connections during nightly consolidation.

Retroactive Interference

A memory disruption that occurs when learning new material impairs the retention or retrieval of previously learned information.

Proactive Interference

A memory disruption that occurs when previously learned information inhibits or interferes with the acquisition and updating of new information.

Motivated Forgetting

A cognitive process wherein the brain actively purges minutiae, boring details, or unused experiences to maintain cognitive flexibility and efficiency.