Question | Answer |
Memory | The nervous system's capacity to retain and retrieve skills and knowledge |
Encoding | The processing of information so that it can be stored |
Storage | The retention of encoded representations over time |
Consolidation | The neural process by which encoded information becomes stored in memory |
Retrieval | The act of recalling or remembering stored information when it is needed |
Long-term Potentiation (LTP) | Strengthening of a synaptic connection, making the postsynaptic neurons more easily activated by presynaptic neurons |
Engram | The physical site of memory storage |
Equipotentiality | The idea that memory is distributed throughout the brain rather than confined to any specific location |
HDAC (histone deacetylases) | A class of enzymes which inhibit gene expression, and the blocking of HDAC may increase memory and LTP. HDAC serves as a molecular "brake pad", which has to be released for memory to occur |
NMDA Receptor | Memory results from learned associations that come about through the firing of nearby neurons, at least one of which fires thanks to its NMDA receptor |
Medial Temporal Lobes | Are responsible for the formation of new memories |
Reconsolidation | Neural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for retrieval |
Sensory Memory | A memory system that very briefly stores sensory information in close to its original sensory form |
Iconic Memory | Visual sensory memory, exists for about 1/3 of a second |
Echoic Memory | Auditory sensory memory, exists for about a second |
Short-term Memory | A memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness |
Working Memory | An active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use |
Memory Span | The limit of short-term memory, usually 7 plus or minus 2, memory span varies among individuals |
Chunking | Organising information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember |
Long-term Memory | The relatively permanent storage of information |
Serial Position Effect | The idea that the ability to recall items from a list depends on the order of presentation, with items presented early or late in the list remembered better than those in the middle |
Primacy Effect | Refers to the better memory that people have for items presented at the beginning of the list |
Recency Effect | Refers to the better memory that people have for the most recent items, the ones at the end of the list |
Maintenance Rehearsal | Simply repeating the item over and over |
Elaborative Rehearsal | Encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking about the item conceptually or deciding whether it refers to oneself |
Schemas | Cognitive structures that help us perceive, organise, process, and use information |
Network of Associations | A semantic network, similar concepts are connected through their associations |
Node | A unit of information in the network |
Spreading Activation Models | According to these models, stimuli in working memory activate specific nodes in long-term memory |
Retrieval Cue | Anything that helps a person (or a nonhuman animal) recall information stored in long-term memory |
Encoding Specificity Prinicple | The idea that any stimulus that is encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory for the experience |
Context-dependent Memory | A memory enhancement, when the recall situation is similar to the encoding situation |
State-dependent Memory | A memory enhancement, when a person's internal states match during encoding and recall, also applies to internal states brought on by drugs or alcohol |
Mnemonics | Learning aids, strategies, and devices that improve recall through the use of retrieval cues |
Method of Loci or the Memory Palace | This mnemonic consists of associating items you want to remember with physical locations |
Implicit Memory | The system underlying unconscious memories |
Explicit Memory | The system underlying conscious memories |
Declarative Memory | The cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory: knowledge that can be declared |
Episodic Memory | Memory for one's personal past experiences |
Semantic Memory | Memory for knowledge about the world |
False Fame Effect | When names are misjudged as being famous because the name is familiar but it is from an unknown origin |
Procedural Memory | A type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioural habits |
Prospective Memory | Remembering to do something at some future time |
Methods of Savings | The difference between the original learning and relearning, you save time and effort because of what you remember |
Seven Sins of Memory | Transience, Blocking, Absentmindedness, Persistence, Misattribution, Bias, and Suggestibility |
Transience/Memory Decay | Reduced memory over time |
Blocking/Retrieval Failure | Inability to remember needed information |
Absentmindedness/Encoding Failure | Reduced memory due to failing to pay attention |
Persistence | The resurgence of unwanted or disturbing memories one would like to forget |
Source Misattribution | Memory distortion that occurs when people misremember the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory |
Memory Bias | The changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with current beliefs or attitudes |
Suggestibility | Altering a memory because of misleading information |
Proactive Interference | Interference that occurs when prior information inhibits the ability to remember new information |
Retroactive Interference | Interference that occurs when new information inhibits the ability to remember old information |
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenonmenon | In which people experience great frustration as they try to recall specific words, names, ect. |
Amnesia | A deficit in long-term memory, resulting from disease, brain injury, or psychological trauma, in which the individual loses the ability to retrieve vast quantities of information |
Retrograde Amnesia | A condition in which people lose past memories for events, facts, people, or even personal information |
Anterograde Amnesia | A condition in which people lose the ability to form new memories |
PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) | A mental health problem that can be triggered by events that threaten people or those close to them |
Propranolol | Blocks the postsynaptic receptors for the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, if given before or right after a traumatic experience, the hormonally enhanced memories and fear response are reduced |
Flashbulb Memories | Vivd episodic memories for the circumstances in which people first learned of a surprising, consequential, or emotionally arousing event |
von Restorff Effect | A distinctive event that is recalled more easily than a trivial event, even if the resulting memory is inaccurate |
Source Amnesia | A type of misattribution that occurs when a person shows memory for an event but cannot remember where he or she encountered the information |
Childhood Amnesia | The absence of early episodic memories |
Cryptomnesia | A type of misattribution that occurs when a person thinks he or he has come up with a new idea, yet has only retrieved a stored idea and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source |
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