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Mnemonics
Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices
Method of Loci
A strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information
Chunking
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically
Spacing Effect
The tendency for distributed study to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through mass practice
Distributed Study
Breaking periods of review over several days
Mass Practice
Studying a little each night is more effective than cramming
Self-Referent Encoding
When information is meaningful to the individual, they are more likely to remember it
Sensory Memory
The immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
Serial Position Effect
Our tendency to best remember the items at the beginning and end of a list
Recency Effect
Only remembering the end of the list
A type of serial position effect
Primacy Effect
Only remembering the beginning of the list
A type of serial position effect
Sensory Memory
The immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
Types of sensory memory
Iconic - visual traces
Echoic - auditory traces
Short Term Memory
Activated memory that holds a few (5-9) items briefly (10-30 seconds) before the information is stored or forgotten
Long Term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
Maintenance Rehearsal
Rote memorization
Involves repeating information
Elaborative Rehearsal
More detailed and involved additional memory aids like mnemonic devices
Autobiographical Memory
A collection of episodic memories
Recollections of moments you previously experiences
Amnesia
Memory loss, often due to brain damage
Anterograde Amnesia
An inability to form new memories
Retrograde Amnesia
An inability to recall past memories
Alzheimer’s disease
Damage to the brain’s receptors for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter responsible for memory and learning
Traumatic Amnesia
Caused by a severe, non penetrative blow to head (car accident, sports injury); can lead to anything from loss of consciousness to coma
Hysterical or Fugue Amnesia
Linked to severe psychological trauma; usually temporary and linked to a traumatic event the mind cannot deal with. Memory often returns, although the memory of trauma may remain incomplete
Childhood or Infantile Amnesia
Inability to recall events from early childhood, could be linked to language development or immature brain
Recall
Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time
Recognition
Identifying items previously learned
Retrieval Cues
Hints tied to help remember information
Context-Dependent Memory
The activation of memory when one returns to the setting of the original encoding
State-Dependent Memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with the state in which a person was at the time of encoding
Mood-Congruent Memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood
Testing Effect
By quizzing yourself or others, you strengthen your brain’s ability to bring forth a memory
Meta Cognition
Understanding how we think, remember, and learn
Forgetting Curve
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Memories decline rapidly, but then level off
Information is lost quickly but if you manage to remember something long enough, you are likely to remember it forever
Encoding Failure
Didn’t pay attention well enough to properly create the memory
Storage Decay
Memory has faded over time
Retrieval Failure
The memory is there but you can’t find it
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
The feeling that a word or idea is just out of reach
Motivated forgetting
Repression and Suppression
Repression
Purposely losing a memory
Suppression
Unknowingly losing a memory, typically because of trauma
Interference
Competing information
Proactive Interference
Old information interfering with new information
Retroactive Interference
Newer information interfering with older information
Constructive Memory
A type of recollection characterized by the utilization of basic insights retained in the memory to build a more thorough and intricate report of an experience
Reconsolidation
The process that enables the update of a previously consolidated memory trance after its reactivation, through re-exposure to unconditioned stimuli, conditioned stimuli and/or context
Imagination Inflation
A type of memory distortion that occurs when imagining an event that never happened increases confidence in the memory of the event
Misinformation Effect
A phenomenon that occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of an event
Source Amnesia
Impaired memory for how, where, or when information was learned despite good memory for the information itself
