Encoding essentials
This is the definition of learning that persists over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information
What is memory?
This brain structure acts as a "save button" for explicit memories, helping process them for long-term storage
What is the hippocampus?
According to George Miller, this is the "magical number" of items that our short-term memory can typically hold at one time
What is seven (plus or minus two)?
If an individual can remember their past but cannot form new memories after a brain injury, they are suffering from this condition
What is anterograde amnesia?
This "frailest part of a memory" involves misattributing the origin of an event we have experienced, heard about, or imagined
What is source amnesia (or source misattribution)?
This effortful processing strategy involves organizing items into familiar, manageable units, like remembering a phone number in segments
What is chunking?
While the hippocampus handles facts, these two structures are key for storing your implicit memories, like how to ride a bike or a conditioned reflex
What are the cerebellum and basal ganglia?
This is our tendency to recall the last and first items in a list better than the items in the middle
What is the serial position effect?
This type of interference occurs when older information you’ve learned (like an old password) makes it difficult to recall new informatio
What is proactive interference?
This is the eerie sense that "I've been in this exact situation before," which may occur when functions of the temporal lobe, hippocampus, and frontal lobe are out of sync
What is déjà vu?
These are the two tracks of our "dual-track" mind: one for memories we consciously know (declarative) and one for memories that skip conscious encoding (nondeclarative)
What are explicit and implicit memories?
This term refers to the increased efficiency of potential neural firing after brief, rapid stimulation, which provides a neural basis for learning
What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
This is the "wakening of associations"—the often unconscious activation of particular associations in memory, like seeing a "missing child" poster and then seeing an ambiguous adult-child interaction as a kidnapping
What is priming?
Much of what we "forget" is actually this—a failure to ever record the information into our long-term memory in the first place
What is encoding failure?
This effect occurs when we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event, often after being exposed to subtle suggestions
What is the misinformation effect?
This phenomenon explains why you’ll remember more of this unit if you study for 15 minutes every night this week rather than "cramming" for three hours the night before the test
What is the spacing effect?
When you are emotionally aroused or stressed, this part of the brain boosts activity in memory-forming areas to ensure you remember the event
What is the amygdala?
This principle states that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it—like doing better on an exam if you take it in the same seat where you learned the material
What is the encoding specificity principle (or context-dependent memory)?
This type of interference occurs when new learning (like a new song’s lyrics) disrupts your ability to recall old information
What is retroactive interference?
Memory researchers use this term to describe the process where previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again
What is reconsolidation?
This level of processing yields the best retention because it encodes words based on their meaning rather than just their structure or sound
What is deep processing (or semantic encoding)?
This is the process by which memories move from the hippocampus to the cortex for long-term storage, a process often supported by sleep
What is memory consolidation?
This is the fleeting sensory memory of visual stimuli, which lasts no more than a few tenths of a second
What is iconic memory?
Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered that the course of forgetting is initially rapid but then levels off with time, a concept known by this name
What is the forgetting curve (or storage decay)?
This is a clear, vivid memory of an emotionally significant moment or event, such as where you were during a major national tragedy
What is a flashbulb memory?