AP Psychology Unit 2 Memory: How We Encode, Store, Retrieve, and Misremember

Encoding

The process of transforming incoming information into a form the brain can use and store; many memory failures begin as weak or absent encoding.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time; different memory systems store information for different durations and in different forms.

Retrieval

The process of bringing stored information out of memory so it can be used; often fails when cues or context are missing.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information (e.g., sequence of events, spatial location, passage of time) with little or no effort.

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort (e.g., learning vocabulary or studying); effort helps, but strategies like self-testing tend to strengthen memory more than rereading.

Shallow processing

Surface-level encoding focused on basic features such as how information looks or sounds; tends to produce fragile, short-lived memories.

Deep processing

Meaning-based encoding that emphasizes understanding, connections, and elaboration; typically produces stronger long-term retention.

Imagery

Using mental pictures to encode information; adds an additional code beyond words and can improve later recall.

Mnemonics

Memory aids (e.g., acronyms, rhymes) that improve remembering mainly by providing organized retrieval cues.

Chunking

Organizing information into meaningful units (“chunks”) to increase how much can be held in short-term/working memory.

Working memory

A system for temporarily holding and actively manipulating information (e.g., doing mental math, summarizing text), not just briefly storing it.

Central executive

In Baddeley’s working memory model, the component that directs attention and coordinates mental tasks and subsystems.

Sensory memory (iconic vs. echoic)

A very brief record of sensory information; iconic memory is visual (a fleeting snapshot) and echoic memory is auditory (a brief echo).

Short-term memory

Brief, limited-capacity storage of information; emphasizes temporary holding rather than active manipulation (which is working memory).

Long-term memory

Relatively permanent, (theoretically) limitless storage for information and skills.

Explicit (declarative) memory

Conscious memories you can describe, including episodic (events) and semantic (facts) memory.

Implicit (nondeclarative) memory

Memories that influence behavior without conscious recall, such as procedural skills and some priming effects.

Consolidation

The process of stabilizing a memory trace after encoding; supported by time and often strengthened by sleep.

Hippocampus

A brain structure strongly involved in forming new explicit (declarative) memories and linking elements of an experience; long-term storage is distributed across cortical networks.

Serial position effect (primacy & recency)

The tendency to remember early list items (primacy—more likely in long-term storage due to rehearsal) and late items (recency—still in short-term/working memory) better than middle items.

Encoding specificity principle

Retrieval is most effective when cues present during encoding are also present during retrieval (helps explain context- and state-dependent memory).

Priming

Unconscious activation of associations that makes certain thoughts or memories easier to access (e.g., “yellow” making “banana” easier to recognize).

Interference (proactive vs. retroactive)

Forgetting that occurs when memories compete: proactive interference is old information disrupting new learning/remembering; retroactive interference is new information disrupting recall of old information.

Misinformation effect

When misleading information presented after an event alters later memory of the event (often demonstrated in Elizabeth Loftus’s research).

Source amnesia (source misattribution)

Forgetting where information came from while retaining the content (e.g., remembering a “fact” but confusing whether it came from a textbook, movie, or conversation).