chapter 6

Accessibility

The degree to which we can gain access to the available information.

Autobiographical memory

Memory of an individual's history.

Availability

The presence of information stored in long-term memory.

Consolidation

The process of integrating new information into stored information.

Constructive

Memory where prior experience affects how we recall things and what we actually recall from memory.

Decay

When we forget facts just because time passes.

Decay theory

Asserts that information is forgotten because of the gradual disappearance, rather than displacement, of the memory trace.

Distributed practice

Learning in which various sessions are spaced over time.

Encoding

How you transform a physical, sensory input into a representation that can be placed into memory.

Encoding specificity

What is recalled depends on what is encoded.

Flashbulb memory

A memory of an event so powerful that the person remembers the event as vividly as if it were indelibly preserved on film.

Interference

When competing information interferes with our storing information.

Interference theory

Forgetting that occurs because recall of certain words interferes with recall of other words.

Massed practice

Learning in which sessions are crammed together in a very short space of time.

Metacognition

Our ability to think about and control our own processes of thought and ways of enhancing our thinking (thinking about how we think).

Metamemory

Strategies involving reflecting on our own memory processes to improve our memory.

Mnemonic devices

Specific techniques to help you organize and memorize information.

Primacy effect

Superior recall of words at and near the beginning of a list.

Proactive interference

Occurs when material that was learned in the past impedes the learning of new material.

Recency effect

Superior recall of words at and near the end of a list.

Reconstructive

Memory retrieval involving the use of various strategies to retrieve the original memory traces of our experiences and then rebuild the original experiences.

Rehearsal

The repeated recitation of an item.

Retrieval

How you gain access to information stored in memory.

Retroactive interference

Occurs when newly acquired knowledge impedes the recall of older material.

Schemas

Mental frameworks that represent knowledge in a meaningful way.

Serial-position curve

Represents the probability of recall of a given word, given its serial position (order of presentation) in a list.

Spacing effect

The phenomenon where the greater the distribution of learning trials over time, the more participants remember over long periods.

Storage

How you store (keep) encoded information in memory.