Encoding: Transferring
This process is the initial recording of information into our memory system.
What is encoding?
Working memory is considered the modern, active update of this storage system from the Atkinson-Shiffrin model.
What is short-term memory?
Semantic memory is a division of memory dedicated to storing general knowledge, facts, and this type of information.
What is meaning?
Like semantic memory, episodic memory falls under this overarching category of long-term memories that we can consciously recall and declare.
What is explicit memory?
Procedural memory is a subtype of this category of long-term memory that stores unconscious motor skills and actions.
What is implicit memory (or nondeclarative memory)?
Unlike automatic processing, this type of encoding requires attention and conscious effort to remember information, like studying for a test.
What is effortful processing?
According to George Miller's research, the capacity of short-term/working memory is roughly this many items, "plus or minus two."
What is seven?
Knowing that George Washington was the first U.S. president or that Paris is the capital of France are examples of this memory type.
What is semantic memory?
Remembering what you ate for breakfast this morning relies on this specific memory system.
What is episodic memory?
Riding a bike, tying your shoes, and swimming are examples of this type of procedural memory.
What is muscle memory (or motor skills)?
This level of processing involves encoding information based on the structure or appearance of words.
What is visual encoding (or shallow/structural processing)?
In Baddeley’s model of working memory, this component acts as the supervisory system that controls attention and coordinates the other subsystems.
What is the central executive?
This cognitive psychologist proposed the semantic network model, suggesting that concepts are represented in our minds as nodes connected by associations.
Who is Allan Collins?
This brain structure, shaped like a seahorse, is essential for processing and encoding new episodic memories into long-term storage.
What is the hippocampus?
This key subcortical brain structure plays a crucial role in coordinating movement and procedural learning.
What is the cerebellum?
This memory effect shows that we retain information better when our rehearsal is distributed over time, rather than crammed all at once.
What is the spacing effect (or distributed practice)?
Repeating a phone number over and over in your head to keep it in working memory is known by this term.
What is maintenance rehearsal?
This phenomenon occurs when semantic knowledge is temporarily out of reach, where you know that you know a word or fact, but you can't quite pull it up.
What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?
Episodic memory allows for "mental time travel" because it uniquely includes memories tied to specific contexts of time and this dimension.
What is place?
While the hippocampus handles conscious facts, this interconnected group of brain structures deep within the forebrain is heavily involved in procedural memory and habit formation.
What are the basal ganglia?
Proposed by Craik and Lockhart, this model suggests that the deeper we analyze or process something, the better we remember it.
What is the levels of processing theory?
Baddeley’s model includes these two specific temporary storage buffers: one for visual/spatial info and one for verbal/sound info.
What are the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop?
In semantic network models, this process describes how activating one node (like "fire truck") triggers the automatic activation of related concepts (like "red" or "hose").
What is spreading activation?
This psychological term describes the inability to retrieve episodic memories from one's past, often resulting from trauma or damage to the temporal lobes.
What is retrograde amnesia?
Famous amnesiac patient H.M. was unable to form new explicit memories after his surgery, yet he could still successfully learn and improve at this classic mirror-drawing puzzle task due to intact procedural memory.
What is a motor skill task (or mirror tracing)?