UNIT 2: Cognition Quiz Vocabulary (Topic 2.3 to Topic 2.7): All About Memory
Here are definitions for each term related to memory:
Memory: The mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, and impressions.
Flashbulb memory: A highly detailed, vivid snapshot of a moment in time, typically associated with emotional events.
Encoding: The process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory.
Storage: The retention of encoded information over time.
Retrieval: The process of accessing and bringing stored information into consciousness.
Sensory memory: The brief retention of sensory information (such as sights and sounds) shortly after the stimulus is perceived.
Short-term memory: A limited capacity memory system that retains information for a short duration, usually seconds.
Working memory: A system that temporarily holds and manipulates information for cognitive tasks such as learning and reasoning.
Long-term memory: A system for permanently storing, managing, and retrieving information with a vast capacity.
Automatic processing: Unconscious encoding of information, such as space, time, and frequency, without effort.
Effortful processing: Encoding that requires conscious effort and attention.
Rehearsal: The conscious repetition of information to be remembered.
Maintenance rehearsal: A technique used to maintain information in short-term memory by repeating it over and over.
Elaborative rehearsal: A method of transferring information into long-term memory by connecting it to prior knowledge and making it meaningful.
Spacing effect: The phenomenon where information is better remembered when studied over spaced intervals rather than in a single massed session.
Serial position effect: The tendency to remember the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) items in a list better than the middle items.
Structural memory: A type of shallow processing that involves focusing on the structure or appearance of the information.
Phonemic memory: A type of medium processing that focuses on the sound of the information.
Semantic memory: A type of deep processing that involves understanding the meaning of the information.
Visual encoding: The process of encoding pictures and images into memory.
Acoustic encoding: The processing of sounds and auditory stimuli into memory.
Autobiographical memories: Memories connected to personal experiences and events in one's life.
Mnemonics: Memory aids or techniques that use associations to facilitate retrieval of information.
Method of Loci: A mnemonic technique that involves visualizing items to be remembered in specific physical locations.
Memory Palace: A mnemonic device that involves associating information with specific landmarks or locations within a familiar environment.
Peg System: A mnemonic technique involves linking words with numbers using a visual association to aid memory retrieval.
Chunking: A process of breaking down large amounts of information into smaller, manageable units for easier recall.
Iconic memory: A brief sensory memory for visual stimuli lasting only a few tenths of a second.
Echoic memory: A brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli, lasting a few seconds after the sound has ended.
Long-term potentiation (LTP): A biological process that underlies learning and memory, involving the strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity.
Amnesia: A loss of memory that can occur due to various causes.
Anterograde amnesia: The inability to form new memories after a specific event or injury.
Retrograde amnesia: The inability to recall memories that were formed before a specific event or injury.
Alzheimer’s Disease: A progressive neurological disorder that leads to memory loss, cognitive decline, and eventually, the loss of ability to carry out simple tasks.
Infantile Amnesia: The inability to remember events from early childhood, typically before the age of two to three.
Episodic memory: A type of explicit memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations, and experiences.
Semantic memory: A type of explicit memory that involves general knowledge and facts about the world.
Prospective memory: The ability to remember to perform actions in the future.
Implicit memory: Unconscious retrieval of information such as skills or conditioned responses.
Explicit memory: The conscious, intentional recollection of information and events.
Retrieval cues: Stimuli or hints that aid in the recall of information from memory.
Recall: A measure of memory where a person retrieves information without cues.
Recognition: A measure of memory where a person identifies previously learned information among options.
Context-Dependent memory: Improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.
Mood-Congruent memory: The tendency to recall memories that are consistent with one’s current mood.
State-Dependent memory: The phenomenon where retrieval is more effective when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as when the memory was formed.
Testing Effect: The improved memory performance that occurs after retrieving information through testing.
Forgetting Curve: A graph that shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it, famously studied by Hermann Ebbinghaus.
Encoding failure: The inability to recall information due to insufficient processing or encoding at the time of learning.
Proactive Interference: When older information inhibits the ability to remember new information.
Retroactive Interference: When new learning interferes with the recall of previously learned information.
Repression: A defense mechanism by which distressing memories are unconsciously blocked from awareness.
Misinformation Effect: When a person’s recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate due to the influence of misleading information.
Constructive Memory: The process wherein memories are actively constructed or reconstructed from various sources rather than retrieved verbatim.