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The process of placing new information into long-term memory.
The state in which a memory, once acquired, remains dormant until it is retrieved.
The process of locating informtion in memory and activating that information for use.
A particular approach ot theorizing in which complex mental events, such as learning, remembering, and deciding, are understood as bing built up out of a large number of discrete steps. These steps occur one by one, with each providing as its "output" the input to the next step in the sequence.
A nickname for a specific coneption of the "architecture" of memory. In this model, working memory serves both as the storage site for material now being contemplated and also as the "loading platform" for long-term memory. Information can reach working memory through the processes of perception, or it can be drawn from long-term memory. Once in working memory, material can be further processed, or it can simple be recycled for subsequent use.
An older term for what is now called working memory.
The storage system in which information is held while that information is being worked on. All indications are that working memory is a system, not a single entity, and that information is held here via active processes, not via some sort of passive storage. Formerly called "short-term memory.".
The storage system in which we hold all of out knowledge and all of our memories. Long-term memory contains memories that are not currently activated; those that are activated are represented in working memory.
A method fo assessing memory. The person being tested is asked to come up with as many items as possible from a particular source (such as "the list you heard earlier" or "things you saw yesterday"), in any sequence.
An often-observed advantage in remembering the early-presented materials within a sequence of amterials. This advantage is generally attributed to the fact that one can focus attention on these items, because at the beginning of a sequence one is obviously not trying to divide attention between these items and other items in the series. Often contrasted with recency effect.
The tendency to remember materials that occur late in a series.
A data pattern summarizing the relationship between some performance measure and the order in which the test materials were presented. In memory studies, the serial position curve tends to be U-shaped, with people best able to recall the first-presented items and also the last-presented items.
Any mental activity that has the effect of maintaining information in working memory. Two types of rehearsal are often distinguished: maintenance rehersal and elaborative rehersal.
A task often used for measuring working memory's storage capacity. Research participants are read a series of digits and must immediately repeat them back. if they do this successfully, they are given a slightly longer list, and so forth. The length of the longest list a person can remember in this fashion is that person's digit span.
A number often offered as an estimate of the holding capacity of working memory.
The hypothetical storage unit in working memory; it is estimated that working memory can hold 7 plus-or-minus 2 chunks. An unspecified quantity of information can be contained within each chunk, since the content of each chunk depends on how the memorizer has organized the materials to be remembered.
A measure of working memory's capacity. This measure turns out to be predictive of performance in many other tasks, presumably because these tasks all rely on working memory.
The hypothesized director of the working-memory system. This is the component of the system needed for any interpretation or analysis; in contrast, mere storage of materials can be provided by working memory's assistants, which work under the control of the central executive.
One of the low-level assistants used as part of the working-memory system. This buffer plays an important role in sorting visual or spatial representations, including visual images.
One of the low-level assistants hypothesized as part of the working-memory system. This loop draws on subvocalized (covert) speech, which serves to create a record in the phonological buffer. Materials in this buffer then fade, but they can be refreshed by another cycle of covert speech, with this cycle being intitated by working memory's central executive.
A pattern of behavior in which one fails to keep one's goal in mind, so that one relies on habitual responses even if those responses will not move the person toward the goal.
A pattern of responding in which one produces the same response over and over, even though one knows that the task requires a change in response. This pattern is often observed in patients with brain damage in the frontal lobe.
A rote, mechanical process in whci items are continually cycled through working memory, merely by being repeated over and over. also called "item-specific rehearsal," and often contrasted with elaborative rehearsal.
A form of mental processing in which one thinks about the relations, or connections, between ideas. This rehearsal will later guide memory search. .
A mode of thinking about material in which one pays attention only to appearances and other superficial aspects of the material; shallow processing typically leads to poor memory retention. Often contrasted with deep processing. .
Learning that takes place in the avsence of anyintention to learn and, correspondingly, in the absence of any expectation of a subsequent memory test.
The acquisition of memories in a setting in which people know that thie memory for the infomration will be tested later.
A mode of thinking about material in which one pays attention to the meaning and implications of the material; deep processing typically leads to excellent memory retention. Often contrasted with shallow processing.
A connection that can lead to a sought-after memory in long-term storage.
A technique designed to improve memory accuract and to make learning easier; in general, mnemonic strategies seek in one fashion or another to help memory by imposing an organization on the materials to be learned.
A type of mnemonic strategy using words or locations as "pegs" on which one "hangs" the materials to be remembered.
A phenomenon in which learning seems linked to the person's mental, emotional, or biological state during the learning. As a result of this linkage, the learning is most likely to show its effects when the person is again in that mental, emotional, or biological state.
A procedure in which someone is led to the same mental and emotional state he or she was in during some previous event; context reinstatement can often promote accurate recollection.
The tendency, when memorizing, to place in memory both the materials to be learned and also some amount of the context of those materials. As a result, these materials will be recognized as familiar, later on, only if the materials appear again in a similar context.
The task of memory retrieval in which the rememberer must come up with the desired materials, sometimes in response to a cue that names the context in which these materials were earlier encountered, sometimes in response to a question that requires the sought-after information. Often contrasted with recognition.
The task of memory retrieval in which the items to be remembered are presented and the person must decide whether or not the item was encountered in some earlier circumstance. Thus, for example, one might be asked, "Have you ever seen this person before?" or "Is this the poster you saw in the office yesterday?" Often contrasted with recall.
A form of memory that allows one to recollect the episode in which learning took place or the time and place in which a particular stimulus was encountered.
In some circumstances, the subjective feeling that one has encountered a stimulus before; in other circumstances, the objective fact that one has indeed encountered a stimulus before and is now in some way influenced by that encounter, whether or not one recalls that encounter or feels that the stimulus is familiar.
The steop of explaining a feeling or event, usually by identifying the factors or the earlier event that is the cause of the current feeling or event.
A distinction between two experienves one can have in recalling a past event. If one "remembers" having encountered a stimulus before, then one usually can offer information about when, where, and how it occurred. If one merely "knows" that one has encountered a stimulus before, then one is likely to have a sense of familiarity with the stimulus but may have no idea when or where the stimulus was last encountered.
A test in which participants are shown strings of letters and must indicate, as quickly as possible, whether each string of letters is a word in English or not. It is supposed that people perform this take my "looking up" these strings in their "mental dictionary.".
A pattern of priming that occurs simply because a stimulus is presented a second time; processing is more efficient on the second presentation.
a task in which people are given the beginning of a word and must provide a word that starts with the letters provided. In some versions of the task, only one solution is possible, and so performance is measured by counting the number of words completed. In other versions of the task, several solutions are possible for each stem, and performance is assessed by determining which of the response fulfill some other criterion.
A memory revealed by direct memory testing and typically accomplished by the convition that one is remembering a spcific prior episode. Often contrasted with implicit memory.
A form of memory testing in which people are asked explicitly to remember some previous event. Recall and standard recognition testing are both forms of this. Often contrasted with indirect memory testing.
A memory revealed by this usually manifest as priming effects in which current performance if guided or facilitated by previous experiences. Implicit memories are often accompanied by no conscious realization that one is, in fact, being influenced by specific past experiences. Often contrasted with explicit memory.
A form of memory testing in which research participants are not told that their memories are being tested. Instead, they are tested in a fashion in which previous experiences can influence current behavior. Examples include word-stem completion, the lexical-decision task, and tachitoscopic recognition. Often contrasted with direct memory testing.
An effect of implicit memory in which claims that are familiar end up seeming more plausible.
A memory error in which one misremembers where a bit of information was learned or where a particular stimulus was last encountered.
An improvement in the speed or ease of processing that results from prior practice in using those same processing steps.
A broad inability to remember events within a certain category, due in many cases to brain damage.
An inability to remember experienves that occurred before the event that triggered the memory disruption. .
An inability to remember experienves that occurred after the event that triggered the memory disruption. .
A clinical syndrome characterized primarily by dense anterograde amnesia. It is caused by damage to specific brain regions and it is often precipitated by a form of malnutrition common among long-term alcoholics.
An argument used by researchers to prove that two processes or two structures are truly distinct. To make this argument, one must show that each of the processes or structures can be disrupted without in any way interfering with the other.
A memory error in which one recalls elements not part of the original episode that one is trying to remember.
A commonly used experimental procedure for eliciting and studying memory errors. In this procedure, a person sees or heards a list of words that are all related to a single theme; however, the word that names the theme is not itself included. Nonetheless, people are very likely to remember later that the theme word was presented.
Knowledge of a general sort, as opposed to knowledge about specific episodes.
A pattern of knowledge describing what is typical or frequent in a particular situation.
An effect in which research participants' reports about an earlier event are influenced by information they recieved after experiencing the event. Can create false memories.
The process of keeping track of when and where one encountered some bit of information.
The hypothesis that with the passage of time, memories may fade or erode.
A mechanism that occurs when a memory is, in fact, in long-term storage, but one is unable to locate that memory when trying to retrieve it.
The aspect of memory that records the episodes and events in a person's life.
The tendency to have better memory for information relevant to oneself than for other sorts of material.
The set of interwoven beliefs and memories that constitute one's beliefs about oneself and one's memories for the self-relevant events one has experienced.
The biological process through which new memories are "cemented in place," acquiring some degree of permanence through the creation of new neural connections.
A memory of extraordinary clarity, typically for some highly emotional event, retained despite the passage of many years.
The percieved importance of an event, or the perception of how widespread and long-lasting the event's effects will be.
The pattern of not remembering the first 3 or 4 years of one's life.
A hypothesized state in which individual memories are held in storage forever. .
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