Psychology: Memory Concepts and Processes

A comprehensive vocabulary review of memory concepts, processes, structures, and phenomena.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Alzheimer’s disease

A condition that severely damages the brain, and in the process, strips away memory.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Encoding

The process of getting information into the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.

Storage

The process of retaining encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Parallel processing

Processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as digits of a phone number while calling, before the information is stored or forgotten.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.

Explicit memory

Retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.” (Also called declarative memory.)

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

Implicit memory

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection. (Also called nondeclarative memory.)

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

Testing effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.

Shallow processing

Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

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.

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.

Serial position effect

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

Mood-congruent memory

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

Priming

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

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Proactive interference

The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

The backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories.

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one’s past.

Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Misinformation effect

Occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of an event.

Source amnesia

Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.

Déjà vu

That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.