Memory and Forgetting Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to memory and forgetting processes.

Memory

The mental capacity to store, recall, or recognize previously experienced events; an active information-processing system; the brain's faculty for encoding, storing, and retrieving information.

Sensory Memory

The initial stage of memory where stimuli enter the brain and are briefly sorted, lasting only a fraction of a second. Includes iconic, echoic, and haptic stores.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A temporary storage system that holds a limited amount of information (about 7+/-2 items) for about 20 seconds. Events are encoded visually, acoustically, or semantically.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

A memory store with unlimited capacity that holds information over lengthy periods of time, potentially for an entire lifetime.

Explicit Memory

Conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concepts, also known as declarative memory.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory or automatic memory utilizes past experiences to remember things without thinking about them, also known as non-declarative memory.

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system, involving translating sensory information into a storable form includes visual, acoustic, and semantic coding.

Storage

The retention of encoded material over time, achieved through maintenance rehearsal (repetition) and elaborative rehearsal (fitting new information into an organizational system).

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage, influenced by context-dependent and state-dependent cues, as well as the mood congruence effect.

Forgetting

The loss, temporary or permanent, of the ability to recall or recognize something learned earlier, or failure to recall an experience when attempting a previously learned action.

Amnesia

Partial or complete loss of information due to biological or psychological causes impacting declarative memory but usually leaving procedural memory intact. Includes anterograde and retrograde types.

False Memories

Distorted recollections of events that did not happen, often feeling real. They can be induced through suggestion and factors like misinformation.

Working Memory

Also known as short term memory, this part of memory handles the information that is currently active such as reading a page or talking to a friend.

Declarative Memory

Also known as explicit memory, it consists of facts and events that can be consciously recalled or declared.

Episodic Memory

Consists of the storage and recollection of observation information attached to specific life events.

Semantic Memory

Refers to general world knowledge (facts ideas, meanings and concepts) that can be articulated and it is independent of personal experience.

Non – Declarative Memory

Also called implicit memory, it is a type of long-term memory that stands in contrast to explicit memory in that it doesn’t require conscious thought.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory and long memory which aids the performance of particular type of without conscious awareness of these previous experiences such as walking, talking and riding a bike.

Priming Memory

The implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a later stimulus. It is a technique in psychology used to train a person’s memory both in positive and negative ways.

Memory Span

The ability of an individual to reproduce immediately, after one presentation, a series of discrete stimuli in their original order.

Huntington's Disease

Inherited disease causing progressive breakdown (degeneration) of nerve cells in the brain, which can lead to cognitive issues.