Introduction to Psychology Exam 2 Terminologies

Introduction to Psychology Exam 2 Terminologies Autobiographical Memory - Memory for the events of one's life Consolidation - The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces Cue Overload Principle - The principle states that the more memories that are associated with a particular retrieval cue, the less effective the cue will be in prompting retrieval of any one memory. Distinctiveness - The principle that unusual events (in a context of similar events) will be recalled and recognized better than uniform (nondistinctive) events Encoding - The initial experience of perceiving and learning events Encoding Specificity Principle - The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it Engrams - A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event; also, memory trace Episodic Memory - Memory for events in a particular time and place Flashbulb Memory - A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event Memory Traces - A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event Misinformation Effect - Incorporating misleading info into one's memory of an event Mnemonic Devices - A strategy for remembering large amounts of information, usually involving imaging events occurring on a journey or with some other set of memorized cues Recoding - Taking the information from the form it is delivered to us and then converting it in a way that we can make sense of it Retrieval - The process of getting information out of memory storage Retroactive Interface - The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information Semantic Memory - The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have Storage - The stage in the learning/memory process that bridges encoding and retrieval; the persistence of memory over time Memory is NOT an exact recording of our experiences - It is a set of cognitive abilities that enable us to store information about past experiences to facilitate effective responses to the present situation Working, Episodic, Semantic, Collective - What are the 4 types of memory? Working Memory - The ability to hold information in mind for a brief time and work with it Collective Memory - Memory that is not simply an individualized process, but a shared and constructed creation of a group