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Memory

The means by which we retain and draw on information from our past experiences to use in the present. As a process, it refers to the dynamic mechanisms associated with storing, retaining, and retrieving information about past experience.

Recall

The process where you produce a fact, a word, or another item from memory.

Recognition

The process where you select or identify an item as being one that you have been exposed to previously.

Explicit memory

A type of memory task or system in which participants engage in conscious recollection to recall specific information.

Implicit memory

A phenomenon in which we use information from memory but are not consciously aware that we are doing so.

Sensory store

A memory store capable of storing relatively limited amounts of information for very brief periods.

Short-term store

A memory store capable of storing information for somewhat longer periods than the sensory store, but also containing a relatively limited capacity.

Long-term store

A memory store capable of a very large capacity and of storing information for very long periods, perhaps even indefinitely.

Hypothetical constructs

Concepts that are not themselves directly measurable or observable but that serve as mental models for understanding how a psychological phenomenon works.

Iconic store

A discrete visual sensory register that holds information for very short periods in the form of visual images (icons).

Levels-of-processing (LOP) framework

A memory framework suggesting that memory does not comprise a specific number of separate stores, but rather varies along a continuous dimension in terms of depth of encoding.

Physical processing

Memory processing based on the visually apparent features of letters or stimuli.

Phonological processing

Memory processing based on sound combinations associated with letters or words (e.g., rhyming).

Semantic processing

Memory processing based on the underlying meaning of a word or stimulus.

Working memory

The active portion of long-term memory that holds and actively manipulates the most recently activated, or conscious, elements moving into and out of temporary storage.

Visuospatial sketchpad

The element of working memory that briefly holds spatial and visual information, such as visual images.

Phonological loop

The element of working memory that briefly stores mainly verbal information for verbal comprehension and acoustic rehearsal.

Central executive

The gating mechanism within working memory that allocates attention, divides attention between tasks, and decides what resources to allocate to memory processing.

Episodic buffer

A component of working memory that explains how we integrate information across working memory, long-term memory, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the phonological loop.

Semantic memory

An explicit memory system that stores general world knowledge and facts that are not unique to us and have no particular temporal context.

Episodic memory

An explicit memory system that stores personally experienced events or episodes associated with a distinctive time or context referent.

Prime

A network node that activates a connected node.

Priming effect

The resulting activation of a node caused by a prime; it facilitates your ability to utilize missing information based on recent exposure.

Mnemonist

Someone who demonstrates extraordinarily keen memory ability, usually based on using special techniques for memory enhancement.

Hypermnesia

A process of producing retrieval of memories that would seem to have been forgotten / inaccessible (making hard-to-retrieve memories accessible).

Deficient memory

A general classification for syndromes and diseases—such as amnesia and Alzheimer's disease—associated with severe memory loss and cognitive impairment.

Amnesia

The severe loss of explicit memory.

Retrograde amnesia

A form of amnesia in which individuals lose their purposeful memory for events occurring before the trauma that induced the memory loss.

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to remember events that occur after a traumatic event.

Infantile amnesia

The inability to recall events that happened when we were very young.

Alzheimer’s disease

A progressive disease of older adults that causes dementia as well as continuous and irreversible memory loss.

Dementia

A severe loss of intellectual function that is significant enough to impair an individual's everyday life.