AP Psychology - Unit 2: Cognition (Memory)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the stages of memory, models of memory, encoding strategies, storage types, retrieval phenomena, and forgetting causes from AP Psychology Unit 2.

Source Amnesia

Forgetting the origin of a memory or attributing it to the wrong source.

Constructive Memory

Integrating existing knowledge, beliefs, and experiences, potentially leading to distortions or false details being added to a memory rather than retrieving a perfect copy.

Memory Consolidation

The biological process, usually occurring during sleep, where the brain transforms short-term memories into stable, long-lasting long-term memories.

Imagination Inflation

Imagining a memory that never happened over and over, which can blur the lines between reality and fantasy and lead to false memories.

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event, researched extensively by Elizabeth Loftus.

Proactive Interference

Occurs when old information gets in the way of remembering new information.

Retroactive Interference

Occurs when new information gets in the way of remembering old information.

Inadequate Retrieval

The inability to access stored information due to a lack of sufficient retrieval cues.

Free Recall

A retrieval method where information is remembered independently without external cues.

Cued Recall

Recalling something specifically once you see or receive a hint or cue.

Recognition

A method of retrieval in which one identifies information previously learned, such as on a multiple-choice test.

Context-Dependent Memory

The tendency for information to be recalled more easily when the environment during retrieval matches the environment where learning occurred.

Testing Effect

Enhancing long-term memory by testing or quizzing yourself rather than simply rereading information.

Metacognition

The awareness, understanding, and monitoring of one's own thought processes.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Rehearsing information in ways that promote meaning and connections to help with memory retention.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

A rare condition where individuals can remember an abnormally large amount of their life experiences, indicating biological processes for superior storage.

Serial Position Effect

The psychological tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than those in the middle.

Primacy Effect

Part of the serial position effect where individuals only remember information from the beginning of a list.

Recency Effect

Part of the serial position effect where individuals only remember information from the end of a list.

Sensory Memory

Memory with unlimited capacity but very brief duration, containing anything incoming through the senses.

Short-Term Memory

Memory with a capacity of $5-9$ items and a duration of less than $20\,sec$ if not rehearsed.

Working Memory

A memory system with a capacity of $3-5$ items that stores and manipulates information for reasoning, learning, and comprehension.

Long-Term Memory

A memory system with vast, uncountable capacity and a duration that can last a lifetime.

Spacing Effect

The beneficial effect of breaking up practice sessions over time rather than cramming.

Massed Practice

A study method, often called cramming, where a large amount of information is learned in a single concentrated period.

Distributed Practice

A learning technique involving practice sessions broken up over time with rest periods.

Mnemonic Devices

Memory techniques that help recall information by associating it with something easier to remember, like the Method of Loci.

Chunking

A memory strategy that involves breaking down large amounts of information into smaller, more manageable units.

Shallow Processing

Focusing on surface-level features like physical appearance (structural) or sound (phonemic) rather than meaning.

Deep Processing

A way of learning that involves actively engaging with information to make it meaningful through analysis and associations.

Semantic Processing

A deep level of processing that involves understanding and interpreting the meaning of words and sentences.

Long-term Potentiation

A long-lasting increase in the strength of neural connections, thought to be the cellular basis for learning and memory.

Explicit Memory

Also called declarative memory; involves facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

Implicit Memory

Also called procedural memory; involves retention of learned skills or conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection.

Prospective Memory

The ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention in the future.

Retrospective Memory

The process of remembering information or events from the past.

Episodic Memory

A type of long-term explicit memory involving conscious recollection of personal experiences with context like time and place.

Central Executive

The control system in working memory that directs attention, maintains goals, and makes decisions.

Phonological Loop

A component of working memory that temporarily stores and manipulates verbal and auditory information.

Iconic Memory

A brief, automatic sensory memory of a visual stimulus lasting less than a second.

Echoic Memory

The ability to temporarily store and recall auditory sounds that have been heard.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information like space and time, or performing tasks quickly with little effort.

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires conscious attention and active effort, such as studying for an exam.

State-Dependent Memory

The tendency to remember information better when the physiological or mental state during recall matches the state during encoding.

Mood-Congruent Memory

The tendency to recall memories that match one's current mood, such as remembering happy events when feeling happy.

Forgetting Curve

A graphical representation showing the rapid decline in memory retention over time when info is not rehearsed.

Encoding Failure

The inability to store information because it was never properly attended to or processed during the initial stage.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events from before age $3$ because the necessary neural networks are not yet in place.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new memories after a brain injury or medical condition.

Retrograde Amnesia

The inability to retrieve memories from the past prior to a brain injury or medical condition.

Achievement Assessment

A current measure of an individual's understanding or knowledge.

Aptitude Assessment

A measure designed to predict future performance.