Psychology - Memory

Flashbulb memory

A vivid and detailed recollection of significant events, often accompanied by strong emotional responses.

Declarative memory

A type of long-term memory that involves the conscious recollection of facts and events, including episodic and semantic memory.

Procedural memory

A type of long-term memory that enables individuals to perform tasks and skills without conscious awareness, such as riding a bike or playing an instrument.

State dependent memory

The phenomenon where memory retrieval is more effective when an individual is in the same emotional or physical state as when the memory was encoded.

Sensory memory

The initial stage of memory that holds sensory information for a very brief period, typically less than a second for visual stimuli and a few seconds for auditory stimuli.

Short term memory

A type of memory that temporarily holds a limited amount of information for a short duration, typically around 20 to 30 seconds, allowing for the manipulation and processing of that information.

Long term memory

The stage of memory that can store large amounts of information for extended periods, from hours to a lifetime, and is essential for learning and recall.

Perception

The process of organizing, interpreting, and consciously experiencing sensory information to understand the environment.

Monocular

cues are visual signals that require only one eye to perceive depth and distance, such as brightness, color, size, texture, and overlap.

Binocular

cues are visual signals that require both eyes to perceive depth and distance, such as retinal disparity and convergence.

limbic system

forms new memories and retrieves long-term memories, key for emotional memories

thalamus

facilitates the flow of info between parts of the brain, supporting encoding

cerebellum

plays a huge role in procedural memory, such as motor skills like riding a bike

acetylcholine

a neurotransmitter that is essential for encoding and consolidating new memories. (a lack of ACH is associated with memory loss diseases like alzheimer’s)

neural networks

encodes, stores, and retrieves both long and short term memories

axon

enables the transfer of info required for memory formation and learning

myelin sheath

enhances neural communication, crucial for processing and consolidating memories

amygdala

enhances emotional memories for better recall

hippocampus

essential for forming and encoding new memories

occipital lobe

processes and stores visual memories

frontal lobe

involved in working memory and planning

temporal lobe

stores verbal + auditory memories

olfactory bulb

responsible for smell-triggered memories