Psyc 355 Test 1

Free Recall

The ability to remember information without seeing clues or answer choices

fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

A brain scan that shows which areas of the brain are active during tasks

Generation Effect

Information you create yourself is remembered better than information you only read

Hawthorne Effect

People change their behavior because they know they are being observed

Hierarchical Network Theory

Memory is organized in levels, with general categories connected to more specific information

Iconic Memory

A very brief visual memory that lasts less than a second

Incidental Learning

Learning information without intentionally trying to memorize it

Levels of Processing

The deeper you think about information, the better you remember it

Lexical Decision Task

A task where you decide whether a group of letters is a real word or a nonsense word

Motivated Forgetting

process by which people have difficulty recalling infor and memories for events that are unpleasant, painful, or generally threatening to the self-perceptions that individuals strive to maintain

Perceptual Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory for the appearance or form of something, such as a word or image

Phonological Loop

The part of working memory that temporarily holds and repeats sounds and words

Primacy Effect

Remembering the first items in a list best

Priming

Exposure to something influences your response to it later, often without awareness

Procedural Memory

Memory for how to perform skills or actions, such as riding a bike

Recency Effect

Remembering the last items in a list best

Reconsolidation

The process of updating and storing a memory again after recalling it

Retrieval

The process of bringing stored information back into awareness

Schema

A mental framework that organizes knowledge and helps you understand new information

Self-Affirmation Theory

Reflecting on personal values can protect self-worth when facing threats or criticism

Semantic Memory

Memory for facts, meanings, and general knowledge

Shallow Level Processing

Processing information based on surface features, such as appearance or sound, which usually leads to weaker memory

Spreading Activation Theory

Activating one concept makes related concepts easier to access in memory

Study Phase

The stage when information is first learned or encoded

Targets

The specific items researchers want participants to remember or recognize

Test Phase

The stage when memory is tested through recall or recognition

Think/No-Think

A memory task where people practice recalling certain items while trying to suppress others

Translation Hypothesis

The idea that information can be remembered better when translated into another form or representation

Working Memory

A limited-capacity system that temporarily holds and manipulates information while you think

Visual Spatial Sketchpad

The part of working memory that temporarily holds and manipulates visual images and spatial information

Dual Task

Doing two tasks at the same time, which can reduce performance because working memory has limited capacit

Articulatory suppression

A technique for disrupting verbal rehearsal by requiring participants to continuously repeat a spoken item.

Consolidation

Process by which a labile memory is transformed into a more stable form

Central executive

Primary control centre that manages, coordinates, and directs info to and from the brain's short-term storage subsystems.

core of working memory model

Key components: Phonological loop, visuospatial sketch pad, and episodic buffer.

Cue

piece of info, a visual marker, or an environmental stimulus that helps recall a stored memory.

Declarative memory

long-term memory that involves the conscious recall of facts, events, and info. Ex. Semantic, episodic.

Deep level processing

encoding occur when info is encoded semantically, by relating it to other words, ideas, or previous knowledge.

Deficient-encoding hypothesis

cognitive theory stating that certain memory impairments occur because information is poorly or incompletely processed during the initial learning stage

Generational effect

Writing down info improves memory

Conceptual implicit memory

When a previous experience makes it easier to process or produce info because of a connection and meaning, even without consciously remembering it.

Directed forgetting

people tend to remember less info when they have been told to forget it

Echoic memory

Brief Auditory sensory memory.

Encoding phase

First stage of the memory process, where raw sensory info from the environment (visual, auditory, tactile, or semantic) is perceived and converted by the brain.

Encoding → storage → retrieval

Episodic memory

conscious recollection of specific personal experiences and events. Ex.bday party

Episodic buffer

Part of Baddley’s model of working memory.

Combines audio, visual, and LTM info into a unified timeline or episode.

ERP Event related potential

Measured brain response of pattern of (EEG) activity obtained by averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus (or similar stimuli) presented repeatedly

Explicit contamination

when a person takes an implicit (unconscious) memory test, but accidentally uses explicit (conscious) memory to help them finish the task

False Alarms

type of memory error where your brain mistakenly claims it recognizes or remembers something that was actually never there

Foils

incorrect items mixed in with correct items during a memory test.

Free Recall

method where participants are presented with a sequence of items which they are subsequently required to recall in any order they wish.