Chapter 22

Key Terms

Free recall: a memory test in which words from a list can be produced in any order.

Cued recall: a memory test in which cues or clues (e.g., first few letters of each list word) are given to assist memory.

Recognition: a memory test in which previously presented information must be distinguished from information not previously presented.

Rehearsal: the verbal repetition of information (e.g., words) which typically increases our long-term memory for the rehearsed information.

Memory span: maximum number of digits or other items repeated back in the correct order immediately after they have been presented.

Chunks: stored units formed from integrating smaller pieces of information.

Working memory: a system that has separate components for rehearsal and for other processing activities (e.g., attention; visual processing).

Central executive: a modality free, limited capacity, component of working memory.

Phonological loop: a component of working memory in which speech-based information is processed and stored and subvocal articulation occurs.

Visuo-spatial sketchpad: a component of working memory that is used to process visual and spatial information and to store this information briefly.

Episodic buffer: a component of working memory; it is essentially passive and briefly stores integrated information from the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.

Declarative memory: a long-term memory system concerned with personal experiences and general knowledge; it usually involves conscious recollection of information.

Non-declarative memory: a form of long-term memory that does not involve conscious recollection of information (e.g., motor skills).

Amnesia: a condition produced by brain damage in which patients have normal short-term but poor long-term memory.

Episodic memory: long-term memory for personal events.

Semantic memory: long-term memory for general knowledge about the world, concepts, language, and so on.

Autobiographical memory: memory across the lifespan for specific events involving the individual (especially those of personal significance).

Priming: a form of non-declarative memory involving facilitated processing of (and response to) a target stimulus because the same or a related stimulus was presented previously.

Skill learning: a form of learning in which there is little or no conscious awareness of what has been learned.

Categorical clustering: the tendency in free recall to produce words on a category-by-category basis.

Schemas: organised knowledge about the world, events or people in long-term memory and used to guide action.

Rationalisation: In Bartlett’s theory, the tendency in story recall to produce errors conforming to the rememberer’s expectations based on their schemas.

Repression: a term used by Freud to refer to motivated forgetting of stressful or traumatic experiences.

Proactive interference: forgetting occurring when previous learning interferes with later learning and memory.

Retroactive interference: forgetting occurring when later learning disrupts memory for earlier learning.

Encoding specificity principle: the notion that retrieval depends on the overlap between the information available at retrieval and the information within the memory trace.

Consolidation: a physiological process involved in establishing long-term memories; this process lasts several hours or more.

Retrograde amnesia: forgetting by amnesic patients of information learned prior to the onset of amnesia.

Saying-is-believing effect: inaccuracies in memory for an event caused by having previously described it to someone else to fit their biased perspective.

Eyewitness testimony: the evidence relating to a crime provided by someone who observed it being committed.

Other-face effect: the finding that recognition memory for same-race faces is more accurate than for other-race faces.

Confirmation bias: memory distortions caused by the influence of expectations concerning what is likely to have happened.

Weapon focus: the finding that eyewitnesses attend so much to the culprit’s weapon that they ignore other details and have impaired memory for them.

Weblinks

Videos of Alan Baddeley talking about various aspects of the working memory model
http://gocognitive.net/interviews/alan-baddeley-working-memory

Baddeley on the development of the working memory model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT0NLihOK30

Professor Elizabeth Warrington talking about long-term memory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxGfexsBldE

Professor Elizabeth Warrington talking about amnesia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl3UrFDy08A

Andrew Mayes lecture on memory and the brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib0O2SUvR5s

A summary of explanations of forgetting
https://www.britannica.com/topic/memory-psychology/Forgetting

The homepage of Elizabeth Loftus; includes links to articles by her and about her work on eyewitness memory
http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/

Elizabeth Loftus and Gary Wells discuss their research on eyewitness memory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_OEHuA2uw

Memory tips from the BBC radio 4 site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory/improve/

Mempowered! A site with hundreds of articles on how memory works and how to improve your memory
http://www.memory-key.com/