Chapter 5: Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

The ability to store and retrieve information over time.

Question 2

Sensory memory

Answer 2

A place where sensory information is kept for a few seconds or less.

Question 3

Short-term memory

Answer 3

A place where nonsensory information is kept for more than a few seconds but less then a minute.

Question 4

Long-term memory

Answer 4

A place where information can be kept for hours, days, weeks or years.

Question 5

Iconic memory

Answer 5

A fast decaying store of visual information.

Question 6

Echoic memory

Answer 6

A fast decaying store of auditory information.

Question 7

Rehearsal

Answer 7

The process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it.

Question 8

Chunking

Answer 8

Combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in the short-term memory.

Question 9

Working memory

Answer 9

Active maintenance and manipulation of information in short-term storage.

Question 10

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 10

Briefly stores visual and spatial information.

Question 11

Phonological loop

Answer 11

Briefly encodes mental representation of sounds and is made up of a short-term store and an articulatory rehearsal system.

Question 12

Central executive

Answer 12

An attentional system that coordinates and controls plans of action and output.

Question 13

Episodic buffer

Answer 13

A temporary storage space where information from long-term memory can be integrated into working memory.

Question 14

Interference

Answer 14

The drop in accuracy and response time performance when two tasks tap into the same system.

Question 15

Consolidation

Answer 15

The process whereby information must pass from short-term memory into long-term memory in order to be remembered.

Question 16

Encoding

Answer 16

The process by which we transform what we perceive, think or feel into an enduring memory.

Question 17

Storage

Answer 17

The process of maintaining information in memory over time.

Question 18

Retrieval

Answer 18

The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored.

Question 19

Schemas

Answer 19

Mental models of the world that contain knowledge that helps us encode new information into a meaningful context.

Question 20

Elaborative encoding

Answer 20

The process of actively relating new information to knowledge that is already in memory.

Question 21

Visual imagery encoding

Answer 21

The process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures.

Question 22

Method of loci

Answer 22

A memory aid that associates information with mental images of locations.

Question 23

Organizational encoding

Answer 23

The act of categorizing information by noticing the relationship between a series of items.

Question 24

Mnemonic

Answer 24

A device for reorganizing information into more meaningful patterns to remember.

Question 25

Memory storage

Answer 25

The process of maintaining information in memory over time.

Question 26

Long-term potential (LTP)

Answer 26

Enhanced neural processing that results from the strengthening of synaptic connections.

Question 27

NMDA receptor

Answer 27

A hippocampal receptor site that influences the flow of information from one neuron to another across the synapse by controlling the initiation of long-term potentiation.

Question 28

Recall

Answer 28

The capacity to spontaneously retrieve information from memory.

Question 29

Recognition

Answer 29

The capacity to correctly match information presented with to contents of memory

Question 30

Retrieval cue

Answer 30

External information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind.

Question 31

Encoding specificity principle

Answer 31

The idea that a retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded.

Question 32

State-dependent retrieval

Answer 32

The tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval.

Question 33

Transfer-appropriate processing

Answer 33

The idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when we process information in a way that is appropriate to the retrieval cues that will be available later.

Question 34

Explicit memory

Answer 34

The act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences.

Question 35

Implicit memory

Answer 35

The influence of past experiences on later behavior and performance, even though people are not trying to recollect them and are not aware that they are remembering them.

Question 36

Procedural memory

Answer 36

The gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice, or ‘knowing how’ to do things.

Question 37

Priming

Answer 37

An enhanced ability to think of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus.

Question 38

Semantic memory

Answer 38

A network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world.

Question 39

Episodic memory

Answer 39

The collection of past personal experience that occured at a particular time and place.

Question 40

Autobiographical memory

Answer 40

The personal record of significant events of one’s life.

Question 41

Flashbulb memories

Answer 41

Detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events.

Question 42

Transience

Answer 42

Forgetting what occurs with the passage of time.

Question 43

Serial position effect

Answer 43

The enhanced memory for events presented at the beginning and end of a learning episode.

Question 44

Retroactive interference

Answer 44

Situations in which later learning impairs memory for information acquired earlier.

Question 45

Proactive interference

Answer 45

Situations in which earlier learning impairs memory for information acquired later.

Question 46

Tip-of-the-tongue experience

Answer 46

The temporary inability to retrieve information that is stored in memory, accompanied by the feeling that you are on the verge of recovering the information.

Question 47

Blocking

Answer 47

A failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it.

Question 48

Absentmindedness

Answer 48

A lapse in attention that results in memory failure.

Question 49

Divided attention

Answer 49

Situations where individuals have to simultaneously monitor more than one source of information.

Question 50

Retroprospective memory

Answer 50

Information learned in the past

Question 51

Prospective memory

Answer 51

Remembering to do things in the future.

Question 52

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 52

The inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into the long.term store.

Question 53

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 53

The inability to retrieve information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of an injury or operation.

Question 54

Concussion

Answer 54

A loss of consciousness that can range from moments to weeks.

Question 55

Fugue state

Answer 55

An amnesia of one’s previous life and identity.

Question 56

Childhood amnesia

Answer 56

An inability to remember events from the early years of life.

Question 57

Metamemory

Answer 57

The subjective awareness of one’s own memory

Question 58

Feeling of knowing (FOK)

Answer 58

The subjective awareness of information that cannot be retrieved from memory.

Question 59

Source monitoring

Answer 59

Recall of when, where and how information was acquired.

Question 60

Memory misattribution

Answer 60

Assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source.

Question 61

Déjá vu experience

Answer 61

Where you suddenly feel that you have been in a situation before even though you can’t recall any details.

Question 62

Déjá vu

Answer 62

A confabulated memory where the individual is certain that the new experience is old.

Question 63

False memories

Answer 63

Recollection of events that never happened.

Question 64

False recognition

Answer 64

A feeling of familiarity about something that hasn’t been encountered before.

Question 65

Bias

Answer 65

The distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs and feelings on recollection of previous experiences.

Question 66

Suggestibility

Answer 66

The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections.

Question 67

Source memory

Answer 67

Recall of when, where and how information was acquired.

Question 68

Persistence

Answer 68

The intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget.