Unit 1 Memory Terms

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards generated directly from Unit 1 (2.3 - 2.7) memory terms list.

Memory

The ability to keep and recall learned information over time.

Alzheimer’s disease

A brain condition that worsens over time, causing serious recall loss, confusion, and thinking problems.

Recall

Bringing back learned information from your brain without looking at options or hints, like on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

Identifying correct information when choices are presented, like on a multiple-choice test.

Three-stage information processing model

A framework explaining how information moves through three steps: taking it in, holding onto it, and getting it back out.

Encoding

The initial step of taking in information and converting it into a form your brain can use.

Storage

Holding onto encoded information in your brain over a period of time.

Retrieval

Accessing and bringing stored information back into conscious awareness.

Multi-store model

A framework proposing three specific stages where information is held: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Sensory memory

The ultra-brief recording of sight, sound, or other sensory input right as you experience it.

Short-term memory

A temporary holding area that keeps a small amount of information active for a few seconds before it is saved or lost.

Long-term memory

The unlimited and lasting storehouse of all your knowledge, skills, and past experiences.

Working memory

The active mental workspace where you consciously hold and manipulate incoming details and retrieved past knowledge.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating information over and over to keep it temporarily active in mind.

Elaborative rehearsal

Deeply connecting new info to things you already know so it sticks in your head for the long run.

Central executive

The controller of working mind that focuses attention and coordinates processing between visual and auditory parts.

Phonological loop

The component of working mind that temporarily holds and repeats spoken words and sounds.

Visuospatial sketchpad

The component of working mind that visualizes images, objects, and spatial locations.

Neurogenesis

The creation and growth of brand-new brain cells.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

The strengthening of neural connections after repeated stimulation, serving as the biological basis for learning.

Explicit (declarative) memory

Knowledge and life events that you can consciously state out loud.

Effortful processing

Taking in information through conscious focus and intentional study work.

Automatic processing

Unconscious, effortless recording of routine details like space, time, frequency, and familiar habits.

Implicit (nondeclarative) memory

Learned skills and conditioned responses that influence behavior without needing conscious thought.

Procedural memory

Unconscious retention of physical skills and habits, like riding a bike or tying shoes.

Iconic memory

A fleeting visual snapshot that lingers in your mind for just a fraction of a second.

Echoic memory

A brief mental echo of sounds or words that lasts about three to four seconds.

Chunking

Grouping separate pieces of information into larger, familiar units to make them easier to remember.

Mnemonic devices

Study tricks or shortcuts, such as acronyms or visual imagery, that help you retrieve facts.

Method of loci

A study strategy where you picture placing items to remember along a familiar mental walking path.

Hierarchies

Outlines or flowcharts that organize broad ideas into smaller, nested subcategories.

Spacing effect

The finding that spreading study sessions over time creates much better retention than studying all at once.

Massed practice (cramming)

Studying everything in one giant session right before a test, leading to rapid forgetting.

Distributed practice

Breaking up study sessions across several days or weeks to build strong, long-lasting recall.

Testing effect

Better retention gained by quizzing yourself instead of just rereading your notes.

Metacognition

Thinking about and understanding your own learning and thought processes.

Levels of processing model

The theory that how well you remember something depends on how deeply you process its meaning.

Shallow processing

Taking in info at a surface level, focusing only on physical appearance or sound.

Visual (structural) encoding

Processing information based only on what visual letters, shapes, or printed words look like.

Acoustic (phonemic) encoding

Processing information based on how words sound or rhyme.

Deep processing

Taking in info meaningfully by focusing on actual concepts and connections.

Semantic encoding

Focusing on the meaning, context, and personal relevance of new information.

Semantic memory

General world knowledge, facts, words, and concepts not tied to personal life events.

Episodic memory

Personal recollections of specific events and experiences from your life.

Hippocampus

A brain structure key to processing conscious facts and life events before saving them to long-term storage.

Memory consolidation

The gradual process where the brain stabilizes and locks new information into permanent storage.

Infantile amnesia

The normal inability of adults to remember specific events from early childhood.

Cerebellum

A brain structure at the back of the head responsible for saving classically conditioned responses.

Basal ganglia

Deep brain structures that help learn and execute automatic motor skills and habits.

Amygdala

An emotional brain structure that boosts trace creation during stressful or scary situations.

Flashbulb memories

Unusually vivid, clear snapshots of shocking or deeply emotional events.

Retrieval cues

Reminders, hints, or sensory triggers that help unlock stored information.

Retrospective memory

Recall of past events, facts, people, and experiences.

Prospective memory

Remembering to perform an intended task or action in the future.

Priming

The subtle, unconscious activation of certain associations that influences how you respond to something next.

Context-dependent memory

Recalling details more easily when you are back in the exact physical environment where you learned them.

State-dependent memory

Recalling details best when your physical or physiological condition matches your state during learning.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to remember past experiences that match your current emotional feeling.

Serial position effect

The pattern of remembering the first and last items in a list much better than the middle ones.

Recency effect

Remembering the last items on a list especially well because they are still fresh in working mind.

Primacy effect

Remembering the first items on a list especially well because you had more time to rehearse them.

Superior autobiographical memory

A rare ability to accurately recall nearly every single day of one's personal life in vivid detail.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to create new long-term traces following brain trauma, despite remembering older past events.

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to recall past events that occurred before a brain injury or trauma.

Encoding failure

Forgetting something because it was never properly paid attention to or processed in the first place.

Forgetting curve

A graph showing that unreviewed information is lost very quickly at first, then loss levels off.

Retrieval failure

Being unable to access a stored item even though it exists, often due to a lack of hints or cues.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

The feeling of knowing a specific word or name while being temporarily unable to pull it out of mind.

Proactive interference

When older details get in the way of remembering newly learned information.

Retroactive interference

When newly learned information causes you to forget older information.

Repression (psychodynamic theorists)

A defense mechanism that automatically pushes distressing thoughts and feelings deep into the unconscious mind.

Constructive memory

Building or altering recollections based on personal beliefs, expectations, and existing knowledge.

Reconsolidation

The process where retrieved information becomes briefly editable before being stored away again.

Misinformation effect

When false or misleading details given after an event corrupt how you recall the event.

Imagination inflation

Becoming convinced a fake event really happened simply by vividly picturing it in your mind.

Source amnesia

Accurately recalling facts but completely forgetting or misremembering where you originally learned them.