memory

• Input (for human memory)

  The sensory information we receive from our environment
• Encoding


  Turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain
• Acoustic encoding


  The process of storing sound in our memory system
• Visual encoding


  The process of storing something that is seen in our memory system
• Semantic encoding


  The process of storing the meaning of information in our memory system, rather than the sound of a word, we store the definition/ meaning of that word
• Output (for memory)


  The information we recall; in a broader sense, output can refer to behavioural response
• Retrieval


  The recall of stored memories
• Short-term memory


  Our initial memory store that is temporary and limited
• Long-term memory


  A memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of information for up to a lifetime
• Duration


  The length of time information can be stored in short-term and long-term memory
• Capacity


  The amount of information that can be stored in short-term and long-term memory
• Rehearse

  When we repeat information over and over again to make it stick
• Displacement


  When the short-term memory becomes 'full' and new information pushes out older information
• Interference


  When new information overwrites older information, for example when a new phone number takes the place of an old number in your memory
• Amnesia

  Memory loss, often through accident, disease or injury
• Anterograde amnesia


  A memory condition that means new long-term memories cannot be made; this is typically caused by injury to the brain
• Retrograde amnesia


  A memory condition that affects recall of memories prior to an injury to the brain
• Active reconstruction


  Memory is not an exact copy of what we experienced, but an interpretation or reconstruction of events that are influenced by our schema (expectation) when we remember them again
• Schema (memory)


  A packet of knowledge about an event, person or place that influences how we perceive and remember
• Omission


  When we leave out unfamiliar, irrelevant or unpleasant details when remembering something
• Transformation


  When details are changed to make them more familiar and rational
• Familiarisation


  When unfamiliar details are changed to align with our own
• Rationalisation


  When we add details into our recall to give a reason for something that may not have originally fitted with a schema
• Cognitive interview


  A police interview designed to ensure a witness to a crime does not actively reconstruct their memory
• Ecological validity


  The extent to which the findings still explain the behaviour in different situations
• Subjective


  Based on personal opinion or feelings
• Sensory register


  Our immediate memory of sensory information
• Attention


  Focus on certain sensory information
• Trigram


  A set of three letters such as GPX that makes a meaningless string of letters rather than a word
• Iconic memory


  The sensory register for visual information
• Echoic memory


  The sensory register for auditory (sound) information
• Modality free


  Not linked to a specific type of sensory information
• Primacy


  The tendency to recall words at the beginning of a list when asked to remember it
• Recency


  The tendency to recall words at the end of a list when asked to remember it
• Serial reproduction

  A technique where participants retell something to another participant to form a chain; this is how folk stories are passed down through cultures
• Repeated reproduction


  A technique where participants are asked to recall something again and again
• Mundane realism


  A realistic, everyday task
• Reductionism


  The theory of explaining something according to its basic constituent parts
• Reductionist


  The practice of reductionism
• Holism


  The theory of explaining something as a whole