Module 32: Storing and Retrieving Memories

What is the capacity of long-term memory? Are our long term memories processed and stored in specific locations?

Our long-term memory capacity is essentially unlimited.

Memories are not stored intact in the brain in single spots. Many parts of the brain interact as we form and retrieve memories.

semantic memory

explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic memory).

episodic memory

explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is semantic memory).

hippocampus

a neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit (conscious) memories—of facts and events—for storage.

memory consolidation

the neural storage of a long-term memory.

cerebellum

The cerebellum is important for storing classically conditioned memories.

basal ganglia

The basal ganglia are involved in motor movement and help form procedural memories for skills.

flashbulb memory

a clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

long-term potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory

Eric Kandel

Eric Kandel identified the physiological changes that occur in the brain during the formation and storage of memories — work that won him the Nobel Prize in 2000.

CREB

The cellular transcription factor CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein) helps learning and the stabilization and retrieval of fear-based, long-term memories. This is done mainly through its expression in the hippocampus and the amygdala.

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.

context-dependent memory

Context-dependent memory is a theory that suggests that information is optimally remembered when it is recalled in the same place in which it was initially learned. So, this theory suggests that you will do best on an exam when you take it in the same classroom where you learned that information!

encoding specificity principle

the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.

state-dependent memory

State-dependent memory or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall.

mood-congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.