Encoding
The process of acquiring information and entering it into memory.
Acoustic Encoding
The mental representation of information as a sequence of sounds.
Visual Encoding
The mental representation of information as images.
Semantic Encoding
The mental representation of an experience by its general meaning.
Storage
The process of maintaining information in memory over time.
Retrieval
The process of recalling information stored in memory.
Episodic Memory
Memory of an event that happened while one was present.
Semantic Memory
A type of memory containing information about how to do things.
Implicit Memory
The unintentional influence of prior experiences.
Levels-of-Processing Model
A view stating that how well something is remembered depends on the degree to which incoming information is mentally processed.
Maintenance Rehearsal
Repeating information over and over to keep it active in short-term memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal
A memorization method that involves thinking about how new information relates to information already stored in short-term memory.
Transfer-Appropriate Processing Model
A model of memory that suggests that a critical determinant of memory is how well the retrieval process matches the original encoding process.
Parallel Distributed Processing Models
Memory models in which new experiences change one's overall knowledge base.
Information-Processing Model
A model of memory in which information is seen as passing through sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Sensory Memory
A type of memory that holds large amounts of incoming information very briefly, but long enough to connect one impression to the next.
Sensory Registers
Memory systems that hold incoming information long enough for it to be processed further.
Selective Attention
The focusing of mental resources on only part of the stimulus field.
Short-Term Memory
The maintenance component of working memory, which holds unrehearsed information for a limited time.
Working Memory
The part of the memory system that allows us to mentally work with, or manipulate, information being held in short-term memory.
Immediate Memory Span
The Maximum number of items once person can recall perfectly after one presentation of the items.
Chunks
Stimuli that are perceived as one unit or as a meaningful grouping of information.
Brown-Peterson Procedure
A method for determining how long unrehearsed information remains in short-term memory.
Long-Term Memory
A relatively long-lasting stage of memory whose capacity to store new information is believed to be unlimited.
Primacy Effect
A characteristic of memory in which recall of the first two of three items in a list is particularly good.
Recency Effect
A characteristic of memory in which recall is particularly good for the last few items in a list.
Retrieval Cues
Stimuli that aid the recall or recognition of information stored in memory.
Encoding Specificity Principle
The ability of a cue to aid retrieval depends on the degree to which it taps into information that was encoded at the time of original learning.
Context-Dependent Memory
Memory that can be helped or hindered by similarities or differences between the context in which it is learned and the context in which it is recalled.
State-Dependent Memory
Memory that is aided or impeded by a person's internal state.
Spreading Activation
A principle that explains how information is retrieved in semantic network theories of memory.
Schemas
Mental representations of categories of objects, events and people.
Method of Savings
Measuring forgetting by computing the difference between the number of repetitions needed to learn and, after a delay, relearn the same material.
Decay
The gradual disappearance of the mental representation of a stimulus.
Interference
The process through which either the storage of the retrieval of information is impaired by the presence of other information.
Retroactive Interference
A cause of forgetting in which new information placed in memory interferes with the ability to recall information already in memory.
Proactive Interference
A cause of forgetting in which information already in memory interferes with the ability to remember new information.
Anterograde Amnesia
A loss of memory for any event that occurs after a brain injury.
Retrograde Amnesia
A loss of memory for events prior to a brain injury.
Mnemonics
Strategies for placing information in an organized context in order to remember it.