PSYCH 258: Midterm 2 Terms Ch 6-9

Encoding

initial processing of information so that it is represented in the nervous system

Storage

retention of encoded information

Retrieval

the brain’s ability to access stored information for cognitive purposes

Capacity

a measure of how much information a memory system can hold

Duration

a measure of how long information can be held in a memory system

Modal Model (Information Processing Model)

model of human memory positing three distinct memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term

Sensory Memory

first stage in modal model holding information before it can be processed, high capacity and short-duration

Short-Term Memory (STM)

second stage of the modal model of memory which serves to hold processed information for rehearsal or to produce a behaviour

Maintenance Rehearsal

the mental repetition of information to be regenerated to prolong its duration

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

final stage in modal model, serving as cold storage of information for retrieval into short term memory

Persistence of Vision

retention of an image of an object/event for a brief period after it is no longer present

Iconic Memory

visual form of sensory memory in which much of visual input can be stored for a short period

Echoic Memory

auditory form of sensory memory in which much of the auditory input can be stored

Chunk

any combination of letters/numbers/sounds constituting a meaningful whole, proposed unit for measuring capacity in STM

Mnemonists

people capable of memorizing long strings of numbers/letters

Decay Model

forgetting occurs because of the passage of time

Interference Model

new information that comes into memory serves to displace older information

Proactive Interference

phenomenon in which information encoded at an earlier point in time interferes with ability to recall information encoded at a later time

Retroactive Interference

phenomenon in which information encoded at a later point in time interferes with the ability to recall information encoded at an earlier time

Articulatory Suppression

technique used in verbal memory experiments, designed to block rehearsal, in which the participant repeats a task irrelevant utterance out loud while trying to maintain other verbal items in memory

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

visual component of the WMM that hods visual information and allows for active manipulation and analysis of that information

Phonological Loop

auditory component of working memory in which information can be repeated/rehearsed

Central Executive

component of WMM that determines what info makes it to memory and toggles between the visual and auditory memory stores

Episodic Buffer

component proposed as a revision to the original working memory model that can combine information from across different sources including the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad as well as LTM

Delayed-Match-To-Sample Task

task designed to test visual STM, participants are shown an image, followed by a delay, and then a second image & tasked with determining if the two images are same or different

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs)

class of neural network models applied to sequential data that contain recurrent nodes that loop their output back into themselves as inputs, allowing them to process past and current inputs simultaneously

Amnesia

severely impaired long-term memory capacities

Retrograde Amnesia

form of amnesia in which memories before trauma/brain damage are lost

Anterograde Amnesia

form of amnesia in which memories formed after the trauma of the brain injury are lost

Maintenance Rehearsal

a technique for encoding information in long-term memory that involves simply repeating the information

Elaborative Rehearsal

a technique for encoding information in long-term memory that involves elaborating on the meaning of the information

Serial Position Effect

an effect is memory studies using recall of long word lists in which words at the beginning and end of a list are remembered better than those in the middle of the list

Primacy Effect

phenomenon in the serial position effect in which words at the beginning of the list are better remembered, attributed to long term memory

Recency Effect

phenomenon in the serial position effect in which words at the end of the list are better remembered, attributed to short-term memory

Level of Processing Theory

theory of long-term memory encoding that holds that depth of meaning during processing determines how likely an item is to be recalled

Free-Recall Task

type of memory task in which the experimental subject must simply remember as many items as they can from a memorized list without cues or prompts

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

account for which information is remembered in long-term memory that emphasizes a match in form between when the information is initially recorded and when it is retrieved

Encoding Specificity

principle in long-term memory retrieval in which a match in condition between encoding and retrieval facilities recall

Context-Dependent Memory

memory benefit when the external conditions match between encoding and retrieval

State-Dependent Memory

memory benefit when the internal conditions match between encoding and retrieval

Spacing Effect

benefit in long-term memory when information is repeated over spaced out intervals

Testing Effect

long-term memory benefit that occurs when people retrieve information on their own rather than observing it passively

Explicit/Declarative Memory

memory for all information that can be verbally reported: includes semantic and episodic memory

Episodic Memory

memory of events that have happened directly to us that can be recalled in a sequence as they occurred

Semantic Memory

form of explicit/declarative memory in which the information is recalled as a set of facts without mental time travel