AP Psych vocab memory and cognition pt. 2

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation.

Flashbulb Memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Implicit / Procedural Memory

Retention of learned skills or procedures.

Explicit / Declarative Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.”

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned.

Priming

The activation of particular associations in memory.

Déjà Vu

That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.”

Mood-Congruent Memory

it’s easier to recall memories that match your current mood

Retroactive Interference

new learning disrupts the recall of old information

Proactive Interference

the disruptive effect of old learning on the recall of new information

Repression

the basic defense mechanism that banishes arousing memories from conscious awareness

Misinformation Effect

when misleading information of an event causes the memories to be distorted after the event has occurred.

Source Amnesia

attributing a memory to the wrong source

Infantile Amnesia

the inability to recall events from early childhood

Anterograde Amnesia

loss of ability to form new memories of events that happen after a brain injury or trauma

Retrograde Amnesia

loss of ability to recall events or information from before a brain injury or trauma.

Constructive Processing

reorganizing or updating memories on the basis of logic or by adding new information

Curve of Forgetting

Ebbinhaus’s graph the shows the amount of information forgotten over time

Episodic Memory

part of explicit memory that contains personal experiences like “tv episodes” of your life

Memory Cue

a stimulus associated with a memory which may aid recall

Memory Decay

the fading of memory over time

Network Model

a model that depicts memory as an interconnected network of linked information

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

a retrieval failure in which you feel a memory is available but you are unable to recall it in the moment.