Memory Types
Memories are easily recalled when you are in a similar state as to when they were formed
State-Dependent Memory
Re-accessing memory and info from the past
Retrieval
Remembering a phone number in groups of numbers rather than a string of them (520-123-4567 instead of 5201234567)
Chunking
Over time, your memories of the first day of high school or your birthday five years ago begin to fade
Memory Decay
You see a car accident, where one car is much faster than the other. After, a police officer tells you both cars were moving very fast, and suddenly you remember that instead.
Misinformation Effect
The recollection of past experiences that occurred at a specific time and place
Episodic Memory
You are able to walk freely without focusing on or adapting to it
Automatic Processing
Remembering the order of the rainbow using ROY G BIV
Mnemonic Device
You cannot remember the events of your second birthday party or the day you learned to walk
Infantile Amnesia
Remembering an event that did not happen (recalling someone on the street when there wasn't anyone there)
False Memories
Helps you perform routine tasks without conscious recollection of remembering how to do them (like tying shoes, spelling your name)
Procedural Memory
Knowing the first letter of the alphabet is 'a' without a cue
Free Recall
Testing your memory of to-be-remembered information (studying before a test)
Retrieval Practice
Unconsciously excluding distressing memories or thoughts from your mind
Repression
Having very vivid, accurate and lasting memories of a stressful event, such as watching the Twin Towers collapse on television or the moment you heard your grandfather had died
Flashbulb Memories
Memory of facts and experiences you consciously remember
Explicit Memory
When you repeat information to yourself in order to remember it temporarily
Rehearsal
Interpreting information around you in relation to yourself (at a party, you hear your name said in a conversation you are not part of)
Self-referent Encoding
Retaining long-term memories but unable to form new or recent memories after an event
Anterograde Amnesia
Someone describing a car as "speeding by" instead of "driving by" makes you remember the car moving much faster
Wording Effect on memory
Type of memory that is affected by prior experience without conscious recollection
Implicit Memory
You can't remember what you had for dinner last Tuesday or what clothes you wore two days ago
Encoding Failure
Learning material through verbal associations and visual imagery
Dual Coding
The inability to recall information from before an event, despite continued ability to form new memories
Retrograde Amnesia
Retracing your steps through your house to remember where you placed your car keys
Context-Dependent Memory