BCC Psych - Memory, Cogn & Lang Vocab

made by hannah w

Memory

mental processes that enable us to acquire, retain, and retrieve information

Amygdala

brain structure involved in emotional aspect of memory

Consolidation

the process of converting new long-term memories into stable, enduring memory

Alzheimer’s disease

patients develop an abundance of beta-amyloid plague and neurofibriillary tangles

Dementia

decline and impairment of memory, reasoning, language and cognitive functions

Patient H.M

removal of hippocampus

Sensory memory

few second memory (echo, ionic after-image)

Working memory

involves the prefrontal cortex

Short-term memory

lasts 20 seconds

Encoding

transforming information into a form that can be entered into and retained by memory

Encoding specificity principal

when conditions of information retrieval are similar to the conditions while encoding (ex. mood congruence)

Maintenance rehearsal

strategy for holding info in STM

Elaborative rehearsal

focus on the meaning of the information for encoding

Storage

retaining of information in memory so that it can be used later

Long-term memory

permanent storehouse of information

Retrieval

recovering stored information in memory so that it can be used later

Schema

organized cluster of knowledge and information about an object, event, situation or concept

Implicit memory

cannot be consciously recollected

Explicit memory

info that can be consciously recalled

Retroactive Interference

current info interferes with remembering old info

Retrograde amnesia

inability to remember past events

Anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories

Forgetting

inability to recall info that was previously available in memory

Algorithm

specific rule of procedure that guarantees correct solution

Heuristic

problem solving strategy that reduces number of possible solutions, does not guarantee solution