psych 9b // chapter 7

• Memory is the capacity of an individual to store and retrieve information in order to facilitate learning.
• Encoding is the process of taking information from the world, including one’s internal thoughts and feelings, and converting it to memories.
• Storage is the maintenance of information in the brain for later access.
• Retrieval is the process of bringing to mind previously encoded and stored information.
• The multistore model of memory is a model proposing that information flows from one’s senses through three storage levels in memory: sensory, short term, and long term.
• Sensory memory is the high-capacity, low-duration storage level of memory that holds sensory information on the order of milliseconds to seconds.
• Short-term memory is the low-capacity, low-duration storage level of memory where information can be held briefly, from seconds to less than a minute.
• Long-term memory is the high-capacity, high-duration storage level of memory where information can be held for hours to many years and potentially a lifetime.
• Iconic memory is a rapidly decaying store of visual sensory information.
• Echoic memory is a rapidly decaying store of auditory sensory information.
• Sensory memory is supported by a brief neural persistence — continued activity in neurons after a stimulus ceases — which rapidly fades. This aspect of sensory memory may be critical to a sense of perceptual continuity, or permanence.
• Short-term memory is post-categorical, meaning that information is processed to the degree a person understands what category of object they are sensing.
• Chunking is the process of grouping stimuli together in chunks in working memory to increase the amount of information in short-term memory.
• Hierarchical chunking is the process of organizing information into meaningful chunks with hierarchical relationships between these chunks.
• Working memory is a component of memory that allows for both the short-term storage and manipulation of information in real time.
• Working memory span is the capacity of working memory, measured by how many items can be juggled and manipulated in the mind.
• Rehearsal is the holding of information in the brain through mental repetition.
• The phonological loop is a component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage and rehearsal of verbal and auditory information.
• The visuo-spatial sketchpad is a component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage and rehearsal of visual and spatial information.
• The central executive is the control center that works with sensory-specific stores and allows for manipulation of information in short-term memory.
• The primacy effect is the tendency for individuals to better recall items presented at the beginning of a list due to having more opportunities for rehearsal and encoding into long-term memory.
• The recency effect is the tendency for individuals to better recall items presented at the end of a list due to those items still being active in short-term and working memory.
• Amnesia is the loss of memory due to brain damage or trauma.
• Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia in which an individual has an inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing new long-term memories from forming.
• Retrograde amnesia is a form of amnesia in which access to memories prior to brain damage is impaired, but the individual can store new experiences in long-term memory.
• Explicit memory is a form of memory that involves intentional and conscious remembering.
• Implicit memory is a form of memory that occurs without intentional recollection or awareness and can be measured indirectly through the influence of prior learning on behavior.
• Procedural memory is a type of implicit memory related to the acquisition of skills.
• Priming is the increased ability to process a stimulus as a result of previous exposure.
• Affective conditioning is a form of conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires positive or negative value.
• Episodic memory is a type of explicit memory involving the recollection of one’s personal experience that requires piecing together the elements of the time and place of that experience.
• Semantic memory is a type of explicit memory involving one’s knowledge about the world, including concepts and facts.
• Semantic dementia is a disorder resulting in the loss of memory in both verbal and nonverbal domains following progressive degenerative disorders, and can be present in advanced Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia.
• Retrospective memory involves memory for things one has done in the past.
• Prospective memory involves memory for things one needs to do in the future.
• Levels of processing refer to the multiple levels at which encoding can occur.
• Shallow encoding is encoding based on sensory characteristics, such as how something looks or sounds.
• Deep encoding is encoding based on an event’s meaning as well as connections between the new event and past experience.
• Deep encoding requires a person to make associations between new information and the old information already represented in their brain, a process referred to as elaboration.
• Semantic encoding is a form of deep encoding that operates on the meaning of events and yields better memory than merely processing what a stimulus sounds like or looks like.