Chapter 8 - Memory: Structures, processes and skills Flashcards
Encoding processes
Used to code the information acquired through the senses and to enter it into the memory system.
Storage processes
Used to retain coded information in the memory system as internal representations.
Retrieval processes
Used to recover or get access to the information stored in the memory system.
Recognition
The type of retrieval process that involves finding a match in memory for something that is in the external world.
Recall
The type of retrieval process that involves searching for something stored in memory and bringing it into consciousness.
Retrieval cues
Cues or prompts available at retrieval that may help us find the information we are searching for in memory.
Memory span
The number of items that can be repeated back in the correct order just after a list of items has been presented in a memory experiment.
Primacy effect
The finding, in memory experiments, that participants are more likely to remember
the first few items from a list of items.
Recency effect
The finding, in memory experiments, that participants are more likely to remember the last few items from a list of items.
Working memory
An alternative conception of short- term memory which reflects its active role in cognitive processing.
Levels of processing theory
The theory that the retention of material in memory is dependent on how deeply it is processed at encoding.
Elaborative rehearsal
The process of thinking about information to be remembered in terms of its meaning and associations to other stored material.
Maintenance rehearsal
The process of memorising by simply repeating information without any further processing.
Orienting tasks
Task instructions designed to influence the processing performed on material to be remembered, such as words.
Incidental learning
Learning that occurs in the absence of explicit instructions to learn when an experimenter presents a set of items for later memory testing.
Intentional learning
Learning that occurs when an experimenter has specifically told participants that their memory for presented items will be tested.
Generation effect
An effect in which participants are more likely to remember
the items that they generated in a word association test, rather than items they simply read.
Spacing effect
An effect in which memory is enhanced because learning is spread out across several sessions, rather than confined to a single session.
Nonsense syllables
Pronounceable, but meaningless material, such as the consonant- vowel-consonant trigrams VOX and BUC, used in memory experiments.
Free recall
A memory recall task in which participants can recall the items in any order they wish.
Clustering
Seen in memory recall when participants recall the items in clusters according to category or some other dimension.
Mnemonic
A technique or strategy that will increase the memorability of material to be remembered, such as adding meaningful associations or bizarre images.
Encoding specificity principle
The notion that retrieval of information from memory depends on an overlap or matching of the cues that are available at retrieval with those registered at encoding.
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
The feeling that although you cannot remember something it is there stored in memory just out of reach.
