Unit 2b Vocab 2

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Mnemonics

Memory aids using vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Method of Loci

Associating items with specific locations.

Hierarchies

Organizing items into a few broad concepts divided into narrower concepts.

Spacing Effect

Distributed study yields better long-term retention.

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than rereading. Also referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.

Shallow processing

Encoding on a basic level

Structural Encoding

Encoding based on the physical structure of information.

Phonemic Encoding

Encoding based on the sound of information.

Deep processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of information. Tends to yield the best retention.

Semantic Encoding

The process of converting sensory input into meaningful, long-term memories by associating new information with existing knowledge and experiences.

Semantic Memory

The store of general knowledge about the world, including the meaning of words, objects, places, and people.

Episodic Memory

The ability to recall specific events from the past

Memory Consolidation

Neural storage of long-term memories.

Prospective Memory

Remembering to perform a future task.

Priming

Activation of particular associations in memory. (How exposure to one stimulus triggers related concepts.)

Context-dependent memory

Improved recall when context at encoding matches retrieval.

State-dependent memory

Recall better when in the same state as during encoding.

Mood-congruent memory

Recall experiences consistent with one's current mood.

Serial Position effect

Tendency to recall first and last items in a list.

Recency effect

Enhanced recall of items at the end of a list.

Primacy effect

Enhanced recall of items at the beginning of a list.

Superior Autobiographical Memory

Exceptional ability to recall personal experiences.

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories.

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to retrieve past memories.

Proactive interference

Older information interferes with the retrieval of new information.

Retroactive interference

New information interferes with the retrieval of old information.

Repression (motivated forgetting)

Unconscious exclusion of distressing memories.

Constructive memory

Creating false memories from misleading information.

Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Misinformation effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

Imagination inflation

Increased confidence in a false memory after imagining it.

Source amnesia

Forgetting the true source of a memory.