Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory (Lecture Notes)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture notes on sensory memory, short-term/working memory, and long-term memory.

Explicit (Declarative) memory

Long-term memory that requires conscious recollection; includes episodic (personal events) and semantic (facts/general knowledge) memory.

Episodic memory

Memory for personal experiences and events, with context such as time and place.

Semantic memory

General world knowledge, concepts, and facts not tied to a specific time or place.

Implicit (Nondeclarative) memory

Long-term memory expressed through performance rather than conscious recall; includes skills, conditioning, and priming.

Conditioning

Learned associations that influence behavior, typically via classical or operant conditioning.

Priming

Exposure to one stimulus influences response to a subsequent stimulus, often without conscious awareness.

Modal model

Atkinson & Shiffrin architecture: environment → sensory memory → short-term memory → long-term memory, with distinct capacity, duration, and coding.

Sensory memory

Brief storage of sensory information with a large capacity but very short duration.

Visual sensory memory (Iconic memory)

Brief visual store holding about 75% of the scene for roughly 250 milliseconds.

Auditory sensory memory

Brief store for sounds; capacity is smaller but duration is longer (about 3–4 seconds), supporting speech and sound processing.

Short-term memory

Limited-capacity store for temporary information; supports manipulation and rehearsal.

Working memory

Active system for maintaining and manipulating information during cognitive tasks.

Chunking

Grouping items into meaningful units to increase effective STM capacity, often using long-term memory for structure.

Miller's Magic Number 7 ± 2

Original claim that short-term memory capacity is about 7 items, ±2, unless items are chunked.

Phonological similarity effect

Recall is worse when items sound similar or rhyme, increasing confusion in short-term memory.

Digit span

A memory task measuring STM capacity by recalling sequences of digits in order.

Primacy effect

Better recall for the first items on a list due to rehearsal and transfer to long-term memory.

Recency effect

Better recall for the last items on a list, influenced by short-term memory; sensitivity to test timing.

Modality effect

Auditory presentation yields a larger recency effect than visual presentation due to longer auditory memory.

Suffix effect

An auditory suffix after a list can erase the modality effect, reducing end-list recall.

Serial position curve

Graph of recall performance by item position showing primacy and recency effects.

Ecological validity

Critique that memory studies using static, artificial tasks may have limited real-world applicability.

Chase & Ericsson study

Research showing that practice and chunking can dramatically extend digit span, illustrating the role of strategy and memory training.

Cowan's magic number (≈4)

More recent view suggesting short-term memory capacity is about 4 ± 1 items, rather than 7.