1. Accessibility is the degree to which we can gain access to the available information.

2. Autobiographical memory refers to memory of an individual's history. Autobiographical memory

is constructive. One does not remember exactly what has happened. Rather, one remembers one's
construction or reconstruction of what happened. People's autobiographical memories are generally
quite good. Nevertheless, they are subject to distortions (as will be discussed later) . They are
differentially good for different periods of life. M iddle-aged adults often remember events from
their youthful and early-adult periods better than they remember events from their more recent past
(Rubin, 1 982, 1 996).
3. Availability is the presence of information stored in long-term memory.
4. Consolidation is this process of integrating new information into stored information. In humans, the
process of consolidating declarative information into memory can continue for many years after the
initial experience ( Squire, 1 986). Stress generally impairs the memory functioning.
5. constructive, in that prior experience affects how we recall things and what we actually recall from
memory.
6. Influenced by attitudes, subsequently acquired information, and schemas based on past knowledge.
7. Interference occurs when competing information causes us to forget something;
8. decay occurs when simply the passage of time causes us to forget.
9. Decay theory asserts that information is forgotten because of the gradual disappearance, rather than
displacement, of the memory trace. Thus, decay theory views the original piece of information as
gradually disappearing unless something is done to keep it intact.
10. Their memories tend to be good when they use distributed practice, learning in which various
sessions are spaced over time.
11. Their memories for information are not as good when the information is acquired through massed
practice, learning in which sessions are crammed together in a very short space of time.
12. Encoding refers to how you transform a physical, sensory input into a kind of representation that can
be placed into memory.
13. Storage refers to how you retain encoded information in memory.
14. Retrieval refers to how you gain access to information stored in memory.
15. Encoding specificity refers to the fact that what is recalled depends largely on what is encoded. what
is recalled depends on what is encoded. The results of various experiments on retrieval suggest that
how items are encoded has a strong effect both on how and on how well items are retrieved.
16. flashbulb memory a memory of an event so powerful that the person remembers the event as
vividly as if it were indelibly preserved on film.
17. Interference theory refers to the view that forgetting occurs because recall of certain words
interferes with recall of other words.
18. Distributed practice, learning in which various sessions are spaced over time.
19. Their memories for information are not as good when the information is acquired through massed
practice, learning in which sessions are crammed together in a very short space of time.
20. Metamemory strategies are just one component of metacognition, our ability to think about and
control our own processes of thought and ways of enhancing our thinking.
21. Metamemory strategies involve reflecting on our own memory processes with a view to improving
our memory.
22. Mnemonic devices are specific techniques to help you memorize lists of words (Best, 2003).
Essentially, such devices add meaning to otherwise meaningless or arbitrary lists of items.
23. The recency effect refers to superior recall of words at and near the end of a list.
24. The primacy effect refers to superior recall of words at and near the beginning of a list.
25. Proactive interference occurs when the interfering material occurs before , rather than after,
learning of the to-be-remembered material.
26. Reconstructive, a reproduction of what was learned, based on recalled data and on inferences from
only those data.
27. Retroactive interference (or retroactive inhibition) is caused by activity occurring after we learn
something but before we are asked to recall that thing.
28. Rehearsal is One technique people use for keeping information active.