Maintaining encoded information in memory over time.
Attention
Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.
Levels-of-processing theory
The theory holding that deeper levels of mental processing result in longer-lasting memory codes.
Elaboration
Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding.
Dual-coding theory
Paivio’s theory that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall.
Sensory memory
The preservation of information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second.
Short-term memory (STM)
A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Rehearsal
The process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about information to be stored in memory.
Chunk
A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.
Long-term memory (LTM)
An unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time.
Flashbulb memories
Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events.
Schema
An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or sequence of events.
Semantic network
Concepts joined together by links that show how the concepts are related.
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
The temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it’s just out of reach.
Connectionist models
Models of memory that assume cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks. See Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models.
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models
Models of memory that assume cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks. Also called connectionist models.
Misinformation effect
Phenomenon that occurs when participants’ recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information.
Source-monitoring error
An error that occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source.
Source monitoring
The process of making attributions about the origins of memories.