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flashbulb memory

clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event




retention of encoded information over time


process of getting information out of memory storage

sensory memory


short-term memory


long-term memory

relatively permanant and limitedless storehouse of the memory system

working memory


automatic processing


effortful processing

encoding that requires attention conscious effort



spacing effect


serial position effect


visual encoding

encoding of picture images

acoustic encoding

encoding of sound, especially the sound of words

semantic encoding

encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words


mental pictures; powerful aid to effortful processing


memory aids; like vivid imagery


organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

iconic memory

momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

echoic memory


long-term potentiation (LTP)

increase in synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation


loss of memory

implicit memory

retention independent of conscious recollection

explicit memory





measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier






activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

deja vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before"

mood-congruent memory


proactive interference

disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

retroactive interference

disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information



misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

source amnesia


Parallel Processing


Maintenance Rehearsal


Elaborative Rehearsal


Primacy Effect


Declarative Memory


Procedural Memory


Episodic Memory


State Dependent Memory


Decay Theory

The act of forgetting something as the memory fades with time

Richard Atkinson

Atkinson's most fundamental and far-reaching contribution to cognitive psychology is the Atkinson-Shiffrin model (with Richard M. Shiffrin), one of the most significant advances in the study of human memory. It put a theory of memory on a mathematical basis for the first time.

Herman Ebbinghaus


Karl Lashley

He was an American psychologist and behaviorist well-remembered for his influential contributions to the study of learning and memory. His failure to find a single biological locus of memory in the rat's brain (or "engram", as he called it) suggested to him that memories were not localized to one part of the brain, but were widely distributed throughout the cerebral cortex.

Elizabeth Loftus


Oliver Sacks


Daniel Schacter

He is an American psychologist. His research has focused on psychological and biological aspects of human memory and amnesia, with a particular emphasis on the distinction between conscious and nonconscious forms of memory and, more recently, on brain mechanisms of memory distortion.



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