Memory

Anterograde Amnesia

loss of memory from the point pf injury or trauma forward, or the inability to form new long-term memories.

Automatic encoding

tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long term memory with little or no effortful encoding.

Autobiographical memory

the memory for events and facts related to ones personal life story

consolidation

the changes that take place in the structure and functioning of neurons when a memory is formed.

contrustive process

referring to the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered,revised, or influenced by newer info.

Curve of forgetting

A graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and the topers off gradually

Decay

Loss of memory due to the passage of time,during which the memory trace is not used

Declarative (explicit memory)

Type of long- term memory containing info that is conscious and known

disuse

another name for decay, assuming that memories that are not used will eventually decay and disappear

distributed practice

spacing the study of material to be remembered by including breaks between study periods.

Echoic memory

auditory sensory memory, lasting only 2-4 sec

Eidetic imagery

the ability to access a visual memory for 30 sec or more

Elaborative Rehersal

A way of increasing the number of retrieval cues for info by connecting new info with something that is already well known

Encoding

the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory info to convert that info into a form that is usable in the brains storage system

Encoding failure

failure to process info into memory

Encoding specificity

the tendency for memory of info to be improved if related info (such as surrounding or physiological state) that is available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved

episodic memory

types of declarative memory containing personal info not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events.

Flash bulb memory

type of automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering it

Hindsight bias

the tendency to falsely believe, through revision of older memories to include newer info, that one could have correctly predicted the outcome of an event

Iconic memory

visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a second. relates with images

infantile amnesia

the inability to retrieve memory from much before the age of 3

information-processing model

model of memory that assumes info that is more “deeply processed,”or processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time

long term memory (ltm)

The system of memory into which all the info is placed to be kept more or less permanently

maintenance rehearsal

Practice of saying some info from the senses, puts that info into usable form and organizes it as it stores it away and then retrieves the info from storage

memory trace

physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed

misinformation effect

the tendency of misleading info presented after an event to alter the memories of the event itself