Memory, Conditioning, and Learning Principles

Search Metaphor

The mental framework treating the mind as a physical space where memories exist as static, indexed objects.

Reconstruction Metaphor

The view that memory is an active process of piecing together past traces with current context and beliefs.

Information-Processing Model

The framework dividing memory into sensory, short-term, and long-term stages.

Sensory Memory

The briefest memory stage, preserving incoming sensory stimuli for fractions of a second to a few seconds.

Iconic Memory

The visual subdivision of sensory memory, lasting less than 1 second.

Echoic Memory

The auditory subdivision of sensory memory, lasting up to 3–4 seconds.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A limited-capacity storage system used to hold information temporarily.

Working Memory Model

Baddeley's multi-component system for actively manipulating immediate information.

Central Executive

The component of working memory that directs attention and coordinates the subsystems.

Phonological Loop

The working memory subsystem that handles verbal and auditory information via acoustic rehearsal.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

The working memory subsystem that handles visual imagery and spatial layouts.

Miller’s Magic Number

The $7 \pm 2$ biological ceiling for the number of un-chunked items human short-term memory can hold.

Immediate Memory Rehearsal Buffer

The maximum amount of verbal data an individual can sub-vocally process within a 2-second window.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

The virtually limitless, permanent storage system for retaining knowledge, habits, and identity.

Explicit (Declarative) Memory

Conscious long-term memories that can be intentionally recalled and stated.

Implicit (Non-Declarative) Memory

Unconscious memories that influence behavior and skills without intentional recall.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of explicit memory containing context-dependent, autobiographical personal events.

Semantic Memory

A subcategory of explicit memory containing structured facts, vocabulary, and general world knowledge.

Procedural Memory

A subcategory of implicit memory containing behavioral routines for physical tasks and motor skills.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

The biological process where repetitive signaling increases communication efficiency across neural synapses.

Hippocampus

The brain structure serving as the critical gateway for encoding explicit/declarative long-term memories.

Amygdala

The brain structure that processes emotional responses and mediates vivid, trauma-tinged memories.

Cerebellum

The brain structure housing networks responsible for motor memory and procedural skill coordination.

Shallow Processing

Encoding that focuses strictly on superficial, physical, or surface characteristics, resulting in poor retention.

Deep Processing

Encoding that evaluates semantic relationships and meaningful context, leading to robust long-term retention.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Actively connecting new details to existing knowledge structures to facilitate long-term storage.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Mechanically looping items within short-term memory without linking them to existing knowledge.

Organization

Categorizing items into shared conceptual groups to establish an efficient structural hierarchy during encoding.

Distinctiveness

Identifying unique differences that isolate an item from similar entries to prevent confusion.

Spacing Effect

The phenomenon where distributed study sessions over time yield significantly better retention than massed practice.

Testing Effect

The finding that active self-testing and retrieval practice lead to vastly superior long-term retention compared to passive rereading.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The rule stating retrieval is most effective when the environmental and contextual cues of testing match those of initial study.

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

The principle that encoding mechanisms must mirror the cognitive processes required during testing for effective retrieval.

Proactive Interference

When old, previously learned information disrupts the acquisition or recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

When new, recently acquired information overwrites or disrupts the retrieval of older data.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new explicit long-term memories following neurological damage.

Retrograde Amnesia

The loss of explicit memories that were formed prior to a specific traumatic event or injury.

Errors of Omission

Memory failures characterized by the loss of access to data, including transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking.

Errors of Commission

Memory failures characterized by distortions, additions, or false data, including misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

Innate Reflexes

Automatic, involuntary behaviors elicited by environmental stimuli that are present at birth.

Learned Behaviors

Relatively permanent structural changes in an organism's behavioral repertoire brought about by environmental experience.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a reflexive biological response without prior learning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, naturally occurring reflexive reaction to an unconditioned stimulus.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that initially elicits no specific behavioral response prior to conditioning trials.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A formerly neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with a US, comes to trigger a learned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned, reflexive reaction elicited by a conditioned stimulus after training.

Contingency

The reliable "if-then" predictive relationship between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction (Classical)

The systematic weakening and eventual disappearance of a CR when the CS is repeatedly presented alone without the US.

Spontaneous Recovery

The brief, temporary reappearance of an extinguished CR after a rest period.

Stimulus Generalization

Extending a learned CR to new stimuli that are physically similar to the original CS.

Stimulus Discrimination

Restricting a CR solely to the original CS due to differential training with look-alike or sound-alike stimuli.

Biological Preparedness

An evolutionary predisposition to learn certain associations much faster than others.

Law of Effect

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are strengthened, while those followed by discomfort are weakened.

Three-Term Contingency

Skinner's foundational framework stating that Antecedents set the context, Behaviors are executed, and Consequences determine future frequency.

Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect (PREE)

The phenomenon where behaviors maintained by intermittent reinforcement schedules are highly resistant to extinction compared to those on continuous reinforcement.