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Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations that influences perception, memory, or response.

Encoding

The process of getting information into the memory system for storage, such as by extracting meaning.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Flashbulb memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Déjà vu

The eerie feeling that you have experienced something before.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storagehouse of the memory system, including knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Amnesia

The loss of memory.

Implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Visual encoding

The processing and storage of picture images.

Acoustic encoding

The processing and storage of sound, especially the sound of words.

Semantic encoding

The processing and storage of meaning, including the meaning of words.

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds if attention is elsewhere.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which a person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten.

Long-term potentiation

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Explicit memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and describe.

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

Recall

A measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and well-learned information, such as word meanings.

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Rehearsal

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list.

Imagery

Mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.

Parallel processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Proactive interference

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Misinformation effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

Source amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.