Memory Systems and Forgetting Lecture Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering memory stages, types of long-term memory, constructive memory studies, mechanisms of forgetting, and neural bases of memory from Modules 32 and 34.

Memory

A series of active systems that receive, organize, store, and recover information.

Encoding

The initial memory process of receiving and converting information into a form usable by the memory system before storage and retrieval.

Storage

The second memory process of retaining encoded information over time within short-term or long-term memory systems.

Retrieval

The third memory process of recovering or accessing stored information from memory systems.

Sensory Memory

A memory stage that holds sensory information for a second or two, such as iconic memory displaying images in milliseconds.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Also known as working memory, a memory stage that processes information through rehearsal and has limited capacity.

Magic Number 7 (plus or minus 2)

The capacity limit of short-term memory as measured by digit span tests (George Miller).

Chunking

Also called recoding, the process of grouping meaningful units of information and finding associations in everyday life to put info into meaningful groups.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

A memory system that stores information relatively permanently and can hold nearly limitless amounts of information for a long time.

Loftus & Palmer (1974)

A study demonstrating reconstructed memory from video of a car accident where speed estimates differed based on the verb used: smashed ($40.8\,\text{mph}$), hit ($34.2\,\text{mph}$), and contacted ($31.8\,\text{mph}$).

Constructed Memory

The process where long-term memory actively, creatively, and personally fills in memory gaps using logic, guessing, or new information, colored by emotions, judgment, and personality.

Procedural Memory

Also called implicit memory, subconscious memories of physical skills and actions outside of awareness, such as driving, sports, video games, or balancing on a bike.

Declarative Memory

Also called explicit or conscious memory, it stores factual knowledge and personal life information that an individual is consciously aware of.

Semantic Memory

A subcategory of declarative memory that holds basic factual knowledge about the world, some of which is almost immune to forgetting.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of declarative memory storing autobiographical, personal experiences and life events, which are easily forgotten unless deemed important.

Encoding Failure

A cause of forgetting where information is never properly processed or saved into memory initially, often aggravated by divided attention such as studying with TV or music.

Decay Theory

A storage failure theory proposing that memory traces (changes in neurons or brain activity) passively weaken or decay over time due to disuse (Thorndike's Law of Disuse).

Retrieval Failure

Cue-dependent forgetting occurring when stored memories cannot be accessed due to a lack of proper environmental or internal retrieval cues.

State-Dependent Learning

The principle that memory retrieval is improved when an individual's physical, emotional, or drug state at the time of retrieval matches their state during initial learning.

Eich, Weingartner, Stillman, & Gillin (1975)

A study on state-dependent learning demonstrating that participants who learned word lists under the influence of marijuana or tobacco performed better when tested in the same drug state.

Interference

A theory explaining forgetting as a result of day-to-day life events and experiences disrupting memory retrieval.

Retrograde Amnesia

Memory loss resulting from physical trauma or injury that prevents a person from remembering events occurring before the trauma.

Anterograde Amnesia

Memory loss caused by trauma or injury that prevents a person from forming new long-term memories following the event.

Henry Molaison (H.M.)

An epilepsy patient who had his hippocampus removed in 1953, resulting in massive anterograde amnesia (remaining 'forever 27'); studied for 55 years until dying in 2008 at age 82 while retaining procedural memory and classical conditioning abilities.

Hippocampus

A limbic system brain structure crucial for consolidation that acts as a switch passing information from short-term memory to long-term memory.