46 Memory Retrieval Concepts

This set of flashcards covers key concepts related to memory retrieval, including types of amnesia, interference in memory, and the mechanisms affecting memory accuracy.

Other-Race Effect

The phenomenon where people are better at recognizing and remembering faces of their own race compared to faces of other races.

Eyewitness Testimony

The reliance on eyewitness accounts in legal settings, despite being often distorted, inaccurate, or biased.

Encoding Failure

Occurs when information never really enters long-term memory (LTM); more accurately described as 'never knowing' rather than 'forgetting'.

Retrieval Failure

When information is not properly retrieved from long-term memory (LTM).

Proactive Interference

The tendency for older information to interfere with the retrieval of newer information.

Retroactive Interference

The tendency for new information to interfere with the retrieval of older information.

Decay

The loss of memory due to the passage of time during which the memory was not used.

Memory Trace

The physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

The experience of being confident that we know something but being unable to retrieve it from long-term memory (LTM).

Retrospective Memory

The ability to remember things from the past.

Prospective Memory

The ability to remember to do something in the future.

Amnesia

Memory loss due to some form of injury or trauma to the brain.

Retrograde Amnesia

The loss of memories from the point of injury backwards.

Anterograde Amnesia

The loss of memories from the point of injury forward.