Learning and Memory Practice Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering classical conditioning, memory processes, memory systems, encoding, retrieval, forgetting, and amnesia.

Learning

A change in behavior resulting from experience, helping organisms adapt to their environments.

Unconditioned stimulus—US

A stimulus that naturally produces a response without training.

Unconditioned response—UR

The natural response to the unconditioned stimulus (US).

Conditioned stimulus—CS

A previously neutral stimulus that produces a response after learning.

Conditioned response—CR

The learned response to the conditioned stimulus (CS).

Acquisition

The gradual formation of the association between the CS and US.

Encoding

Initially processing and learning information.

Storage

Maintaining information over time.

Retrieval

Accessing stored information.

Sensory storage

Very briefly retains a large amount of sensory information in a form close to the original input.

Short-term storage

Briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness.

Working memory

Actively maintains and manipulates information.

Long-term memory

Retains information beyond immediate, brief storage.

Episodic memory

Memory for personally experienced events.

Semantic memory

General knowledge, facts, and meanings.

Autobiographical memory

Memory concerning your own life history.

Collective memory

Memories shared and passed along within a group.

Declarative memory

Conscious memory for facts and events.

Recognition

Identifying previously learned information among alternatives.

Recall

Producing information from memory.

Relearning

Learning material again and measuring saved time or effort.

Free recall

Producing studied items without item-specific prompts, often in any order.

Cued recall

Producing an answer with a reminder or prompt.

Savings formula

The formula used to calculate learning savings: $\text{Savings} = \frac{\text{original learning trials} - \text{relearning trials}}{\text{original learning trials}} \times 100$

Distinctiveness

Standing out from surrounding or similar events.

Recoding

Transforming information into another useful representation.

Meaningful encoding

Processing meaning and connecting new material with existing knowledge.

Imagery

Creating mental pictures.

Memory trace / Engram

A physical change in the nervous system that represents learning or experience.

Consolidation

Processes following learning that help stabilize a memory.

Retention interval

The time between learning and a later memory test.

Available information

Information that is stored in memory.

Accessible information

Information stored in memory that you can currently retrieve.

Encoding specificity

The principle that a retrieval cue works well when it matches or overlaps with the way the experience was encoded.

Cue overload

Occurs when a retrieval cue becomes less useful because it is associated with too many memories.

Testing effect

The phenomenon where retrieving information improves the likelihood of retrieving it again later.

Retrieval-induced forgetting

The phenomenon where retrieving some information can make related, competing information harder to retrieve.

Reconstructive memory

Rebuilding an event using memory traces, knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions.

Flashbulb memory

Vividly remembering the circumstances of hearing emotionally significant news.

DRM effect

When related words lead you to remember an associated word that was never presented.

Pragmatic inference

When you infer something likely and later remember it as explicitly stated.

Misinformation effect

When misleading information received after an event distorts memory for that event.

Mnemonic devices

Techniques that improve remembering through organized encoding and retrieval cues.

Method of loci / memory palace

Associating items with familiar locations and mentally visiting those locations.

Peg-word technique

Associating items with a memorized set of cue words.

Acronyms

Recoding a series of items into a memorable word or sequence of initials.

Encoding failure

A cause of forgetting where information was not adequately learned.

Decay

A cause of forgetting where a memory representation weakens over time.

Insufficient retrieval cues

A cause of forgetting where information is stored but the right reminder is missing.

Interference

A cause of forgetting where other memories compete with the target memory.

Intentional forgetting

Deliberately trying to prevent retrieval by redirecting attention away from an unwanted memory.

Proactive interference

A direction of interference where OLD information interferes with NEW information.

Retroactive interference

A direction of interference where NEW information interferes with OLD information.

Adaptive forgetting

The concept that forgetting can help us function efficiently by reducing competition from irrelevant details.

Anterograde amnesia

Impaired formation of new long-term memories after onset.

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of access to memories formed before onset.

Temporally graded retrograde amnesia

A pattern where recent memories from before onset are more affected than distant memories.

Organic amnesia

Amnesia associated with brain injury or disease.

Functional / dissociative amnesia

Memory loss not attributed to an identified brain injury or obvious brain disease, often involving autobiographical information.

Dissociative fugue

A condition involving major autobiographical and identity memory loss, sometimes accompanied by wandering or travel.

H. M.

A famous patient who underwent surgery in 1953 involving medial temporal lobe structures; demonstrated impaired new lasting declarative memory formation but preserved working memory and motor-skill learning.

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Researchers who proposed the three memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term stores.

Ebbinghaus

Researcher who studied nonsense syllables and discovered that forgetting happens most rapidly early after learning.

Tulving

Researcher associated with retrieval and encoding specificity.

Loftus

Researcher associated with misinformation and eyewitness memory.

Shereshevsky / S

An individual with extraordinary memory whose case illustrated the costs of remembering excessive detail.

Simon Reinhard

A memory athlete who uses trained memory strategies rather than photographic memory.

Piaget

Famous psychologist cited as an example of having a vivid but false autobiographical memory of an attempted kidnapping.