Remembering, Knowing, and Forgetting

Recall Definition

participants must produce previously seen stimuli without a full prompt being given

Free Recall Definition

being shown a listn of words and then recalling them in any order

Serial Recall Definition

recalling items in order

Cued Recall Definition

a partial prompt is given to illicit the recall

Recognition Memory Definition

a memory test in which participants must decide whether a stimulus was shown on a particular trial

Two reasons memories are more likely to be remembered during recognition memory tests:

familiarity and recollection

Familiarity Definition

context-free memory in which the recognized item just feels familiar

Recollection Definition

context-dependent memory that involves remembering specific information from the experiment episode

Familiarity is supported by which brain region?

the perirhinal cortex

Recollection is supported by what combo of brain regions?

the hippocampus binds information from the perirhinal cortex (familiarity) with context from the parahippocampal cortex to create a recollection

Levels of processing accound Definition

information that is processed semantically is more likely to be remembered than information that is processed perceptually

Encoding Specificity Hypothesis

events are easier to remember when the context at retrieval is similar to the context at encoding

Ex: remembering a psychology fact is easier to do when you are sitting in the classroom that you learned the fact in

Describe Passive vs. Active Forgetting

passive forgetting is the natural weakening of memory traces, whereas active forgeting is due to interferences and inhibitions in which different memories cause others to weaken

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting Definition

retrieval of a memory causes active inhibition of similar competing memories

• Ex: trying to remember where you parked the car today may inhibit memories of where you parked yesterday

• this is a form of active forgetting

Directed Forgetting Definition

forgetting arising because of a deliberate intention to forget

• When given instructions to either forget a list of words (experimental group) or remember a list of words (control group), those told to forget the list generally have worse recall

Constructive Memory Definition

the act of remembering construed in terms of making inferences about the past, based on what is currently known and accessible

Ex: being read “bed, pajamas” and remember also hearing “sleep” because the heard words are so closely related to sleeping that you feel as though “sleep” is also familiar

Source Monitoring Definition

the process by which retrieved memories are attributed to their original context (where you experienced this memory, who told you the story, etc)

Confabulation Definition

a memory that is false and sometimes self-contradictory without an intention to lie