Unit 1: Cognition - Memory Flashcards

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms and concepts of memory and cognition from the lecture notes.

Memory

The process of taking in information, storing it, and retrieving it later when needed

Explicit Memory

Memories we consciously recal l.

Episodic Memory

Personal experiences, like your first day of school.

Semantic Memory

Facts and general knowledge, like the capital of France.

Procedural Memory

Skil ls like riding a bike or typing

Prospective Memory

Remembering to do something in the future

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

A process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation.

Working Memory

Short-term memory as an active work space

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Handles visual and spatial information

Long-Term Memory

Where memories are stored for extended periods.

Multi-Store Model

This classic model divides memory into $3$ stages.

Sensory Memory

Captures information for a brief moment.

Central Executive

The "boss" that coordinates everything.

Phonological Loop

Deals with sounds and language.

Iconic Memory

Visual information (lasts less than $1$ second).

Echoic Memory

Auditory information (lasts a few seconds).

Shallow Processing

Focusing on physical features (e.g., how something looks).

Deep Processing

Focusing on elaboration and meaning, leading to better recal l

Automatic Processing

happens without deliberate effort or conscious awareness, often for information that is either familiar, routine, or processed in paral lel with focused tasks.

Effortful Processing

involves deliberate attention and conscious effort to encode information into long-term memory.

Encoding

Turning information into a form your brain can use.

Storage

Keeping that information over time.

Retrieval

Accessing stored information when needed.

Structural Processing

Shallow Processing, Focusing on physical features (e.g., how something looks).

Phonemic Processing

Focusing on sounds.

Semantic Processing

Focusing on meaning, leading to better recal l.

Method of Loci

Associating items to be remembered with specific locations along a familiar route

Chunking

involves grouping information into meaningful units such as categories & hierarchies.

Spacing Effect

shows that spaced learning is more effective than cramming.

Massed vs. Distributed Practice

cramming vs. spacing the studying out

Serial Position Effect

indicates that we remember items at the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a list better than those in the middle.

Primacy Effect

We remember items at the beginning

Recency Effect

We remember items at the end

Elaborative Rehearsal

promotes deeper understanding and long-term retention by making connections between new information and what you already know.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

Memories tied to our own lives are often more vivid and easier to recal l; people with these can recal l almost any day of their life

Retrograde Amnesia

loss of past memories

Anterograde Amnesia

inability to make new memories

Infantile Amnesia

the inability to recal l memories from early childhood

Alzheimer's Disease

associated with a deficiency in acetylcholine.

Retrieval Process

recovering stored memories; happens through recal l or recognition

Recall vs. Recognition

retrieving information without specific cues vs. information or events that seem familiar

Context-Dependent Memory

learning and remembering in the same place boost memory

Mood-Congruent Memory

we better remember an event when we are in the same mood we were in when it first happened

State-Dependent Memory

internal cues shape memory

Testing-Effect

Test, Study, Retest to activate to more effectively store information in long-term memory.

Metacognition

thinking about one's thinking

Forgetting Curve

il lustrates how memory retention decreases over time; most happens shortly after learning and then levels off.

Encoding Failure

Information never properly stored.

Proactive Interference

old info disrupts new

Retroactive Interference

new info disrupts old

Tip-of-the-Tongue

the feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable; inadequate retrieval

Repression

The defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences from consciousness.

Misinformation Effect

Incorrect information alters memories.

Source Amnesia

Forgetting the source of a memory.

Constructive Memory

the process by which we update our memories in light of new experiences, situations, and chal lenges.

Memory Consolidation

when memory is transformed from STM to LTM, it is vulnerable to interference and reorganized as time passes.

Imagination Inflation

imagining an event that didn't occur increases the individual 's confidence that the event did occur