CHAPTER 7 Long-Term Memory: Encoding, Retrieval, and Consolidation

Encoding

The process of acquiring information and transferring it into memory.

Retrieval

The process of remembering information that has been stored in long-term memory.

Maintenance rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves repetition without any consideration of meaning or making connections to other information.

Elaborative rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves thinking about the meaning of an item to be remembered or making connections between that item and prior knowledge.

Levels of processing theory

The idea that memory depends on how information is encoded, with better memory being achieved when processing is deep than when processing is shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal.

Depth of processing

The idea that the processing that occurs as an item is being encoded into memory can be deep or shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal.

Shallow processing

Processing that involves repetition with little attention to meaning. Shallow processing is usually associated with maintenance rehearsal.

Deep processing

Processing that involves attention to meaning and relating an item to something else. It is usually associated with elaborative rehearsal.

Paired-associate learning

A learning task in which participants are first presented with pairs of words, then one word of each pair is presented and the task is to recall the other word.

Self-reference effect

Memory for a word is improved by relating the word to the self.

Generation effect

Memory for material is better when a person generates the material him- or herself, rather than passively receiving it.

Retrieval cues

Cues that help a person remember information that is stored in memory.

Retrieval practice effect

When practicing memory retrieval increases elaboration, which increases performance on memory tasks.

Testing effect

Enhanced performance on a memory test caused by being tested on the material to be remembered.

Spacing effect

The advantage in performance caused by short study sessions separated by breaks from studying.

Distributed practice

The advantage in performance caused by short study sessions separated by breaks from studying.

Free recall

A procedure for testing memory in which the participant is asked to remember stimuli that were previously presented.

Cued recall

A procedure for testing memory in which a participant is presented with cues, such as words or phrases, to aid recall of previously experienced stimuli.

Encoding specificity

The principle that we learn information together with its context. This means that the presence of the context can lead to enhanced memory for the information.

State-dependent learning

The principle that memory is best when a person is in the same state for encoding and retrieval. This principle is related to encoding specificity.

Transfer-appropriate processing

When the type of task that occurs during encoding matches the type of task that occurs during retrieval. This type of processing can result in enhanced memory.

Mnemonic

Any memory strategy or technique that improves encoding, retention, and/or retrieval of information.

Verbatim memory

The ability to recall information precisely as it was presented.

Consolidation

The process that transforms new memories into a state in which they are more resistant to disruption.

Synaptic consolidation

A process of consolidation that involves structural changes at synapses that happen rapidly, over a period of minutes.

Systems consolidation

A consolidation process that involves the gradual reorganization of circuits within brain regions and takes place on a long timescale, lasting weeks, months, or even years.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

The increased firing that occurs in a neuron due to prior activity at the synapse.

Standard model of consolidation

Proposes that memory retrieval depends on the hippocampus during consolidation, but that once consolidation is complete, retrieval no longer depends on the hippocampus.

Reactivation

The process by which previously encoded memories are replayed or reactivated, reinforcing and stabilizing the memory for long-term storage.

Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA)

A procedure for determining the pattern of voxel activation that is elicited by specific stimuli within various structures.

Classifier

In multivoxel pattern analysis, the classifier is a computer program designed to recognize patterns of voxel activity.

Reconsolidation

A process proposed by Nader and others that occurs when a memory is retrieved and becomes reactivated. Once this occurs, the memory must be consolidated again, as it was during the initial learning. This repeat consolidation is reconsolidation.

Temporal context model (TCM)

A cognitive model that explains how the temporal context of past experiences is used to cue and retrieve memories, with items encoded in a specific sequence being recalled based on their temporal proximity and order.