AP Psychology: Memory Modules 2.3 - 2.7

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering concepts across psychology memory modules, including encoding, storage structures, retrieval strategies, and memory failure phenomena.

Recall

A measure of memory retention in which a person retrieves information learned earlier that is not currently in conscious awareness, such as answering short-answer questions or remembering a former teacher's name.

Working Memory

Active, conscious processing and effortful mental manipulation where new incoming information is actively held and connected to knowledge retrieved from long-term memory in the moment.

Recognition

A measure of memory retention where an individual identifies previously learned items upon encounter, such as on a multiple-choice question.

Norepinephrine

A neurotransmitter documented in research to improve memory retention and learning.

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that is vital for processing and forming new explicit memories.

Explicit Memory

The conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, past events, and personal experiences, such as remembering details of a recent vacation.

Miller's Working Memory Capacity

The cognitive limit on the amount of information that can be held in conscious working memory, which is exceeded by an unchunked 10-digit number.

Automatic Processing

The unconscious encoding of incidental information, including space, time, frequency, and everyday details such as what you ate for breakfast.

Semantic Encoding

The deep processing of information by focusing on its meaning and relating it to oneself or personal life experiences.

Testing Effect

The enhancement of memory and long-term retention produced by actively retrieving information (such as taking practice quizzes) rather than simply rereading it.

Echoic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli that typically lingers for a brief window of a few seconds (demonstrated by an average length of $3.47\text{ seconds}$).

Cerebellum

The brain structure that plays a key role in forming and storing implicit memories, such as procedural skills and conditioned associations.

Flashbulb Memory

A clear, vivid memory of an emotionally significant or momentous personal event, such as a family member returning home from overseas military deployment.

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and practically limitless storehouse of the memory system, capable of preserving information across an entire lifetime.

Semantic Networks

Mental frameworks and interconnected clusters in memory that organize concepts based on their associations and semantic interrelations.

Context-Dependent Memory

The improved recall of specific information when retrieval occurs in the same environmental context or setting where the information was originally encoded.

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to best recall items located at the beginning and the end of a list, while struggling to remember items located in the middle.

Primacy Effect

The component of the serial position effect characterized by enhanced recall for items presented at the very beginning of a list.

Recency Effect

The component of the serial position effect characterized by enhanced recall for the final items presented in a sequence when tested immediately.

Metacognition

Awareness, monitoring, and understanding of one's own cognitive and learning processes, exemplified by deliberate self-testing strategies.

Interleaving

A study strategy that improves retention by alternating between different subjects, categories, or problem types during study sessions.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new long-term memories following neurological trauma or infection, while leaving memories from before the injury intact.

Encoding Failure

A memory breakdown that occurs when incoming sensory information is not attended to or properly transferred into the long-term memory store.

Proactive Interference

A disruptive memory effect where older, previously learned material impairs the ability to recall newly learned information.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability of adults to recall genuine episodic memories from the first $4\text{ years}$ of life because the brain is not yet sufficiently mature to reliably store them.

Source Amnesia (Source Misattribution)

A memory error in which a person recalls information or an idea correctly but attributes it to the wrong source, such as mistaking an existing song heard on the radio for one's own original creation.