Memory Concepts and Terminology

Memory Types and Concepts

Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new memories after the onset of amnesia.
Retrograde Amnesia: Inability to recall memories formed before the onset of amnesia.
Autobiographical Memory: Personal memories of one's life and experiences.
Infantile Amnesia: Inability to recall memories from early childhood.

Memory Processes

Encoding Failure: Failure to process information into memory.
Memory Consolidation: The process by which short-term memories are transformed into long-term ones.

Memory Retrieval

Recall: Retrieving information without cues.
Recognition: Identifying previously learned information with cues.
State-dependent Memory: Retrieval is easier when in the same state as when the memory was formed.
Context-dependent Memory: Retrieval is facilitated by the context in which the information was learned.

Memory Distortions

Misinformation Effect: Incorporation of misleading information into memory.
Source Amnesia: Inability to remember the source of a memory.
Imagination Inflation: Increased confidence in false memories after imagining them.
Constructive Memory: Memory that is influenced by existing knowledge and expectations.

Memory Limitations

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve: Describes the rate at which information is forgotten over time.
Proactive Interference: Older memories interfere with the retrieval of newer memories.
Retroactive Interference: Newer memories interfere with the retrieval of older memories.
Repression: Unconscious exclusion of distressing memories from awareness.

Memory Phenomena

TOT Phenomenon: Feeling of knowing a memory but being unable to retrieve it.
Mood-congruent Memory: Easier recall of memories that match one’s current mood.

Cognitive Processes in Memory

Metacognition: Awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes.
Elaborative Rehearsal: Technique to enhance memory by linking new information to existing knowledge.
Psychodynamic Theorists: Focus on unconscious processes affecting memory.