Absentmindedness—When a
person intends to perform one action but unintentionally does another.
Absorption—The continual
transfer of the contents of working memory into long-term memory.
Accessibility of a trace—The
ease with which a trace can be found in memory; sometimes believed
to be due to the number of cues present.
Acetylcholine—A neurotransmitter
that can affect memory processes (see scopolamine) and found in reduced
levels in the brains of Alzheimer's victims.
Acoustic encoding—Encoding
of sounds or of acoustic information in verbal stimuli.
Activation of a trace—The
increase in the strength of a trace in long-term memory due to rehearsing
the trace in working memory.
Acronym—Arranging a list
of words so that the first letters of the words themselves make a
word. Acronyms are usually easy to learn and remember (see first letter
mnemonic).
Acrostic—A procedure to
learn a target word by making a sentence in which each word of the
sentence begins with one of the letters that makes up the target word.
Action potential—The level
of electrical stimulation of a nerve that, when exceeded, leads an
electrical impulse to travel throughout a cell body to the axon branches
which release neurotransmitters into the synapse.
Activation of a trace—The
increase in the strength of a trace in long-term memory that results
when information in the trace, or related to a trace, is presented.
Adrenaline (epinephrine)—A
hormone that may enhance learning.
Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)—A
hormone produced by the adrenal glands that in small doses may enhance
learning.
Agnosia—An inability to
recognize objects. Agreements to perform memory tasks. Dividing future
memory tasks into parts and allocating them among individuals.
Alzheimer's disease—A disorder
that typically leads to an obvious loss in short-term memory and long-term
memory.
Alzheimer's Disease Associated Protein
(ADAP) —A protein that seems to appear only in the tissue
of people with Alzheimer's. It has been found in both the brain and
spinal fluid.
Amnesia syndrome—A loss
of an ability to form long-term memories.
Amphetamine—A stimulant
that may enhance learning, especially when fatigue is present.
Amygdala—Part of
the limbic system and located near the temporal lobes, the amygdala
lies deep within the cerebrum and is responsible for basic social
behaviors and the sex drive.
Amyloid precursor protein (APP)—A
normal, essential substance made by brain cells that contain beta
amyloid. In Alzheimer's, APP is cut and releases beta amyloid. Beta
amyloid then forms clumps called senile plaque.
Anterograde amnesia—The
failure to learn, i.e., form long-term memories.
Aphasia—A difficulty in
expressing and/or understanding language.
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE)—A
protein that ferries cholesterol through the bloodstream. The ApoE
gene has three variants (or alleles), E2, E3, and E4. Each person
inherits an allele from each parent. Ninety percent of the population
inherit one copy of ApoE3, and 60 percent inherit two copies.
Applicability of manipulations—The
particular tasks for which mental manipulation will be effective.
Apraxia—A disorder due
to brain damage that impairs a person's ability to move.
Architecture of memory—The
arrangement of components of the memory system.
Arousal—A general increase
in a person's energy that enhances capability to pay attention and
to perform.
Arts of memory—Paintings,
sculptures, or maps that have been designed to aid memory.
Assessment of Memory Abilities—Identification
of strengths and weaknesses at memory tasks as revealed by formal
testing by a psychologist.
Associationism—The view
that memory is ultimately explained by forming associations between
items.
Associations of a trace—Associations
join traces to one another.
Associative Mental Manipulations—Techniques
that lead traces to be connected together in long-term memory.
Attention—The process of
orienting to the world around us and the contents of working memory.
Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
Disorder—(ADHD) is a diagnosis applied to children and adults
who consistently display certain characteristic behaviors over a period
of time, including inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. People
who are inattentive may have a hard time learning something new.
Attention, distribution—The
intensity of attention varies across memory traces.
Attention, level—The level
of the intensity of attention.
Attribute mental manipulations—Techniques
that foster comprehension of aspects of material to be learned.
Attributes of a trace—One
of the aspects of a trace affected by mental manipulation.
Autistic savant—A person
who demonstrates extraordinary mental ability in some area but also
suffers retardation.
Autobiographical memory—Memory
for the events of a person's life.
Availability heuristic—Judging
the frequency of an event based on how easily instances of the event
can be remembered.
Availability of a trace—Whether
a trace is in memory or not.
Axon
and Dendrite:
Within a neuron, you have the receiving ends, the dendrites, which
process the incoming electrical/chemical signals and relay the information
to the nucleus/cell body of the axon and tell it whether or not it
needs to transmit the signal down the axon to continue the signal
and propagate it to another dendrite of another neuron.
B-endorphin—A natural opiate
that is released in the brain in times of stress and pain, affecting
memory.
Backward retrieval strategy—A
search of memory from the most recent memories to those that are most
distant.
Bad memory habits—Automatic
approaches to memory tasks that impair memory performance.
Basal
ganglia—A
set of five structures beneath the cortex responsible for forming
small, individual movements into smooth sequences. The basal ganglia
get their input from the cortex, via the pons and thalamus; and in
turn they send directions to the spinal cord through the midbrain
to enact these coordinated motions. Generally, the ganglia manage
fine motor coordination, such as the intricate movements of the fingertips
while writing.
Benzodiazepines (BZ)—Tranquilizers
(such as Librium and Valium) that are used to treat psychological
symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, and tension) and that also impair
memory.
Biological theoretical perspective—The
view that memory is due just to biological processes.
Bottom-up processing—Tasks
that require elaborative processes (also called 'data driven').
Brain
stem—This
primitive portion of the brain consists of four major structures:Ê
the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the midbrain, and cerebellum.
The thalamus, hypothalamus, pineal gland, and the reticular formation
make up the upper brain stem. The brain stem is the major connection
between the cerebrum and the spinal cord, and is mainly responsible
for regulating functions vital to survival. However, there is evidence
that the simplest of emotional responses, such as fear, startling,
and pleasure, originate in this area of the brain.
Broca's aphasia—An inability
in articulating words due to brain damage.
Brown-Perterson distracter technique—A
procedure for assessing short-term memory after a person engages in
a test that makes it impossible to rehearse (such as counting backwards).
Cell assemblies—Groups
of interconnected neurons hypothesized to retain memories (see macrocolumn
and neural nets).
Central executive (processor)—A
component of the memory system that directs the mental process that
underlies memory performance.
Cerebellum—The
bulbic structure at the back of the cortex that is involved in balance
and movement and in establishing motoric memories.
Latin for "little brain": the cerebellum—located
below and behind the occipital lobe of the cerebral cortex—is
composed of two small hemispheres that regulate muscular coordination,
voluntary movement, and balance. It also gives us our sense of our
own bodies and where they are located in space, called "proprioception."
For example, without the cerebellum, we would not recognize how
far apart our legs were from each other, or where our limbs were
located as they rested. Some theories hold that the cerebellum retains
rudimentary memory capacity for reflexes and sequences of motor
activity—what we would
call "muscle memory," such as those required to ride a
bicycle again after years have gone by since the last time one did.
The cerebellum is connected to the brain stem via three bundles
of nerve fibers called peduncles.
Cerebral
cortex—Composed
of neuron-dense "gray matter,"the cerebral cortex is often called
the cortex or "the brain". The cortext consists of the outer layer
of the cerebrum. The brain has a surprisingly large surface area
of 230-465 square inches. To fit all that valuable gray matter into
our relatively small cranium, the cortex is pleated into folds (gyri)
and grooves (sulci). The largest of these folds and grooves serve
as dividers, separating the brain into two distinct hemispheres,
each with four lobes.
The cerebral cortex,
is responsible for all higher thought processes. It manages and
integrates information from all of our sensory organs, initiates
movement and more complex actions, controls emotions, warehouses
our memories, and gives us the ability to plan and think abstractly.
Cerebrum—The
uppermost portion of the forebrain is called the cerebrum. It is the
"thinking" center of the brain. It is often regarded as the "brain."
Characteristic features—Features
of concept that identify the characteristics of instances of a particular
concept (see defining features).
Childhood amnesia—The inability
to remember events from very early childhood (same as infantile amnesia).
Chunking—The combining
of information into chunks to facilitate storage in STM.
Clustering—The organization
of items into groups in memory based on membership in the same category
(see subjective organization).
Coding of information—Identifying
the features of a stimulus and storing them in memory.
Cognitive interview (guided recall)—A
collection of retrieval strategies that sometimes increases recall.
Cognitive maps—A mental
map of the environment.
Compliance—The performance
of a memory task because the person is not motivated to do so.
Components of memory—The
parts of the memory system.
Computerized axial tomography (CAT)—A
scan of the brain that sends a rapidly rotating X-ray beam through
the patient's head, taking pictures of the brain from different angles
(see MRI and PET scans).
Conceptually driven tasks—Tasks
that require active organization and elaborative processes (also called
'top down').
Condition for memory tasks—Physical
fitness that affects a person's ability to pay attention and perform
memory tasks.
Confabulation—When a person
makes up a false story, without doing so intentionally, concerning
a past event in his or her life (see false memory syndrome).
Connectionism—The view
that memory is explained by connections between items.
Consolidation—The physiological
process that progressively transforms a temporary memory into a permanent
memory.
Context dependent memory—Superior
recall which occurs when it is attempted in the presence of a context
that was also present during learning (see encoding specificity principle,
state dependent memory, mood dependent memory, and transfer-appropriate
processing).
Control processes—Flexible
strategies used to facilitate the formation of long-term memories
(see maintenance rehearsal and storage rehearsal).
Conversational flow manipulations—Techniques
that affect the flow of conversation to give a person extra time for
memory processing.
Corpus Collosum—
A band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres
and transmits information between the hemispheres.
Cortisol—The major natural
glucocorticoid (GC) in humans. It is the primary stress hormone.
Cranial nerves—Either
motor or sensory, these nerves emerge from the base of the brain
in 12 symmetrical pairs and are connected to the head, neck, eyes,
ears, mouth, and throat. Each nerve delivers messages to and from
the medulla oblongata. They are referred to clinically by roman
numerals, and each has an associated function that is as follows:
I: Olfactory nerve; linked to smell.
II: Optic nerve; linked to vision.
III: Oculomotor nerve; linked to eye movement and pupil dilation.
IV: Trochlear nerve; linked to eye movement.
V: Trigeminal nerve; relays sensory information from the face and
head, and sends commands to the chewing muscles.
VI: Abducens nerve; linked to eye movement.
VII: Facial nerve; relays sensory information about taste and hearing,
and controls the facial muscles.
VIII: Vestibulocochlear nerve; linked with hearing and balance.
IX: Glossopharyngeal nerve; relays sensory information from the
tastebuds, tongue, tonsil, and pharynx, and controls some swallowing
muscles.
X: Vagus nerve; controls the sensory, motor, and autonomic functions
of the internal organs.
XI; Spinal accessory nerve; controls the muscles involved with head
movement.
XII: Hypoglosseal nerve; controls the movement of tongue muscles.
Cueing—The effect of physical
cues that improves learning or remembering.
Cue-dependent forgetting—An
inability to remember because retrieval cues are not present.
Cue gathering—Looking or
listening for things that might facilitate a person's learning or
remembering.
Cue-word method (for study of autobiographical
memory)—A task that requires a person to recall a personal
memory that is associated with a cue word.
Cultural memory tasks—Memory
tasks that are common or important to a certain culture.
Cumulative rehearsal—The
rehearsing of a set of items over and over (see noncumulative rehearsal).
Decay of a trace (law of disuse)—The
erosion or fading of a memory trace. Decay theory. A theory of forgetting
that assumes memories grow weaker and weaker with the passage of time.
Declarative memory—A kind
of memory that is directly accessible to conscious recollection.
Defining features—Features
of concept that allow an object to be considered an instance of a
particular concept.
Deja vu—The feeling that
one has already experienced a situation while knowing that she or
he has never encountered the situation before.
Dementia—Disorders that
result in a significant loss of intellectual abilities, such as memory
capacity, severe enough to interfere with social or occupational functioning.
Dendrites—Branches of a
neuron that dispose a neuron to fire when stimulated by neurotransmitters.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)—Chemical
chains that retain genetic codes and that some people assume are involved
in memory.
Depression—The emotional
state of being down that often leads to lessened memory ability (see
anterograde amnesia).
Dichotic listening task—The
task of listening to simultaneous messages (e.g., a list of letters
or words) to each ear.
Digit span—A test in which
a series of digits are presented and the person being tested must
try to recite them in the order of presentation.
Directed forgetting (suppression)—The
conscious attempt to forget a memory by deliberately trying not to
think about it.
Displacement of memory—The
hypothesis that new information can push old information out of memory.
Dissociative memory disorder—Where
memory of one's identity is forgotten because of intense memories;
(also called functional amnesia; see multiple personality disorder,
psychogenic amnesia and psychogenic fugue).
Distinctiveness hypothesis—The
hypothesis that deeper levels of processing result in better and more
distinctive learning than shallower levels of processing (see elaboration
hypothesis).
Distortion of a trace—An
alteration of a memory trace.
Distribution of practice—When
a person distributes his or her studying over time.
Dressing apraxia—A disorder
in which people forget how to put on their clothes.
Dynamics of social interaction—The
pace and content of conversation, which affects the encoding and retrieval
of information.
Easterbrook hypothesis—The
hypothesis that increased arousal narrows attention, focusing on fewer
cues in the environment than normal.
Efficiency of memory technique use—The
speed with which a person is able to execute a manipulation.
Elaboration hypothesis—The
hypothesis that deeper levels of processing result in better learning
than shallower levels of processing.
Elaborative rehearsal (Type II rehearsal)—Repetition
of information in order to analyze it more deeply forms a long-term
memory of the information.
Electroconvulsive shock—Electrical
stimulation to the brain used to treat depression that induces a brief
retrograde amnesia.
Encoding—An incidental
form of learning.
Encoding specificity principle—Superior
recall of items that occurs when recall is attempted in the presence
of cues that were also present during learning (see context dependent
memory, state dependent memory, mood dependent memory, and transfer-appropriate
processing).
Engram—The neuronal or
chemical material in which a memory trace resides.
Environmental activity—A
behavior that focuses on objects or events in order to stimulate,
or even substitute for, memory.
Epilepsy—A disorder due
to brain seizures that affect memory capabilities.
Epinephrine (Adrenaline)—A
hormone that may enhance learning.
Exhaustive serial search—A
search of memory item by item.
Experimental approach—The
study of memory through experimentation.
Expert knowledge—The knowledge
of experts that enables them to carry out impressive memory feats.
Explicit encoding (Intentional)—Trying
to register information in memory.
Explicit remembering—Intentional
recall.
External memory aids—The
use of objects and devices to remember to perform memory tasks (see
internal memory aids and commercial memory aids, reminding services
and external knowledge sources).
False memory syndrome—The
recall of fictitious events, usually traumatic, with the belief that
the events are genuine.
Feedback about memory performance—Praise
or criticism from others about one's memory performance.
First letter mnemonic—(see
acronym).
Flashbulb memories—Recollections
of highly emotional events that some believe are especially well registered
in memory and immune from forgetting.
Forebrain—This
center of all higher functions is made up of the cerebrum, as well
as the underlying structures of the thalamus, hypothalamus, and limbic
system.
Forgetting—The decrease
in remembering with the passage of time.
Formal assessment of memory abilities—Determination
of a person's memory abilities on the basis of performance of a variety
of tests.
Forward retrieval strategy—A
search of the most early memories on up to the present.
Free recall learning—When
a person attempts to recall a list of items in any order.
Frontal
lobe—This
foremost lobe in each of the two hemispheres of the brain is responsible
for executive control or supervision of cognition, language, associative
processes including learning and memory, and motor coordination.
Damage to this lobe of the brain can be devastating, and may result
in paralysis, inability to plan sequences of complex movements,
loss of spontaneity and flexibility of thought, problems focusing
attention, mood changes and social interaction difficulties, and
even the inability to speak or to understand language.
Some of the major substructures of the frontal lobe include:
precentral gyrus: the brain's motor center, which is directly
connected to the somatosensory inputs in the parietal lobe and
which is responsible for processing and initiating all motor functions.
Broca's area: This area, located on the left side of the frontal
lobe, processes language by controlling the mouth, lips, and larynx
(together responsible for the production of speech).
The majority of the frontal lobe is dedicated to what are called
associative areas —areas of the brain from which we receive
our ability to think abstractly and creatively, solve problems,
reflect upon events, and make judgments.
Functional amnesia—The
forgetting of one's personal identity due to the repression of intense
memories (also called dissociative memory disorder).
Habitual prospective memory tasks—Prospective
memory tasks that people engage in on a regular basis, e.g., brushing
your teeth (see episodic prospective tasks).
Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological
Battery (HR)—This battery presents a series of standardized
cognitive tests, some of which assess memory performance.
Head injury—Brain damage
due to a severe blow that penetrates the brain or causes damage within
the skull.
Hierarchical knowledge—Knowledge
structures that help people organize what they know into various domains.
Hierarchical network—A
network in which different concepts are connected.
Hindbrain—Also
called the brain stem, this most primitive portion of the brain consists
of the brain stem and houses both the medulla, pons, and cerebellum.
It is responsible only for the most basic of life functions, such
as maintaining hearbeat, blood pressure, and breathing, as well as
some rudimentary, survival-based emotions like fear.
Hippocampus—Located
deep within the cerebral cortex in the limbic system, near the temporal
lobes. This structure is vital to the formation and retrieval of
memories.
Huntington's disease—A
dementia that results in abnormal bodily movements, postures, and
gaits.
Hypothalamus—Weighing
only 4 grams, this structure is located beneath the thalamus at the
base of the brain. The hypothalamus guides the autonomic nervous system's
regulation of the function of internal organs, controls the endocrine
system's release of hormones, and fuels basic biological drives including
sex, hunger, thirst, sleep, and rudimentary emotional responses like
pleasure and fear. It also plays a role in regulating body temperature,
and helps coordinate the activity of the pituitary gland and the brain
stem. It is your hypothalamus that keeps your "biological clock"
ticking, giving you a sense of the passage of time even when such
external clues as light and temperature are absent.
Iconic memory—A memory
that provides a brief but highly accurate record for stimuli impinging
on sensory receptors.
Idiot savant—A mentally
retarded person who is nevertheless capable of performing impressive
memory feats (see autistic savants, mono-savant, savant syndrome,
talented savants and prodigious savants).
Immediate memory—The retention
of items for about 30 seconds or less (see STM or primary memory).
Implicit memory tasks—Tasks
that do not involve conscious remembering of past learning but do
involve performance that shows such learning occurred.
Implicit remembering—Unconscious
influence of information on recall.
Incidental manipulations—Behaviors
that raise attention level in general.
Incremental learning—Learning
bit by bit, rather than all at once.
Infantile amnesia—The inability
to remember very early childhood.
Information-processing approach—The
theoretical view that memory is best explained as a computer, where
learning and remembering are done by mental programs.
Instructional variables—Aspects
of the directions on how to perform a memory task.
Intentional forgetting—Deliberate
forgetting due to inattention to the memory trace.
Intentional manipulations—Behaviors
that raise attention by consciously focusing on certain details of
the information encountered in the task.
Interference hypothesis of repression—The
explanation that repression is due to the anxiety associated with
the repressed memories.
Interference theory of forgetting—A
theory that assumes forgetting occurs because the primary memory trace
to be remembered is confused with one or more other memories.
Internal memory aids—The
use of mental strategies to remember to perform retrospective and
prospective memory tasks (see external memory aids).
Jamais vu—The feeling that
a person has never experienced a situation while the person knows
that she or he actually has encountered the situation before.
Language of Memory—Common
words or colloquial expressions that describe memory performance.
Law of Contiguity—The law
that two events or experiences which occur closely in time will become
associated with each other.
Law of disuse (decay theory)—The
explanation of forgetting as due to the weakening of habits over time.
Leading questions—Questions
that suggest the answer to be given.
Learning—An intentional
form of memory registration.
Left hemisphere—Though
many of its functions overlap in complex ways with those of the right
hemisphere, the left hemisphere is more dominant in the areas of logic
and rationality, sequential and analytical thought, mathematics, and
especially language, comprehension and speech.
Levels of processing approach—The
perspective that memories are learned by processing material.
Lexical decision task—The
task of deciding whether a string of letters makes up a word or not.
Limbic system—Comprised
of olfactory (smell) cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and parts of the
thalamus and hypothalamus, this forebrain structure is linked to primitive,
emotionally driven behaviors and motivation. It is also important
to the control of the body's visceral muscles— those located
in the digestive tract and various organs. This system integrates
emotional memories with associated smells, like the familiar smell
of freshly-baked cookies.
Link mnemonic—A technical
mnemonic in which a person visualizes each successive pair of a set
of objects by interacting, forming a mental link from one object to
another.
Linkword system—A mnemonic
in which foreign language vocabulary is learned by forming an image
of an object suggested by the foreign word in interaction with an
image suggested by the English word.
Long-term memory system—The
component of the memory system that retains information indefinitely
(see secondary memory).
Long-term recency effect—The
superior recall of the final items in a list.
Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological
Battery (LN)—A battery that presents a series of standardized
cognitive tests, some of which assess memory performance.
Macrocolumns—Interconnected
neurons which function together to record engrams (see cell assemblies
and neural nets).
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—A
scan in which strong magnetic fields surround the head and bombard
it with radio-frequency pulses whereupon the brain emits signals that
the computer uses to develop pictures of the brain (see CAT and PET
scans).
Maintenance rehearsal (Type I rehearsal)—Shallow
repetition of information in order to just keep it in consciousness,
but not learn it (see elaborative rehearsal).
Mamillary bodies—A structure
in the diencephalon involved in learning.
Managerial memory manipulations—Enhancing
memory through organizing use of memory manipulations.
Medial temporal regions—Inner
areas of the temporal lobes that are involved in memory consolidation.
Mediation deficits—When
an individual cannot make use of memory strategies.
Medulla oblongata—Part
of the brainstem, or hindbrain -- the most primitive portion -- this
structure is located just above the spinal cord and controls the most
basic of life functions, such as respiration, blood pressure, heartbeat,
and muscle tone. It is often referred to simply as the medulla. The
medulla is the transition point between brain and spinal cord, and
it is at this juncture that the sensory nerve fibers cross over each
other -- hence, the reason for the left brain's control over the right
side of the body and vice versa.
Memorist—A person with
superior memory skills without making use of traditional image-based
mnemonics.
Memory aids—Objects or
devices that facilitate memory performance.
Memory aids, commercial—A
product that facilitates memory performance or does the memory task
for a person.
Memory attitude manipulation—A
behavior that corrects your misimpressions of memory performance and
that fosters a realistic approach to memory tasks.
Memory blocks—When a person
tries repeatedly to recall something but cannot do so.
Memory communication—Claims
about memory performance that affect another's acceptance of the claims.
Memory condition manipulation—A
behavior that enhances a person's memory performance by improving
one's physiological and mental states.
Memory contrivance—A portrayal
of someone else's memory performance as better or worse than it actually
was in order to achieve certain social goals.
Memory disorder—A psychological
and/or physiological condition that impairs memory performance and
renders the person unable to function adequately in daily life.
Memory etiquette—Rules
concerning how one should act when someone else fails at a memory
task.
Memory feedback—Information
about a person's memory performance (see memory contrivance).
Memory improvement—A program
of imparting better memory processes (see memory rehabilitation).
Memory language—Words that
convey memory states.
Memory pacts—Agreements
wherein one person agrees to perform certain memory tasks in exchange
for the other person performing other memory tasks.
Memory questionnaires—Questionnaires
that ask about memory performance.
Memory rehabilitation—A
program of retraining memory functions that have been lost due to
disease, disorder or accident (see memory improvement).
Memory reputation—The beliefs
that others hold regarding the likelihood a person will succeed or
fail at memory tasks.
Memory rituals—Memory tasks
customarily expected of individuals in certain cultures.
Memory role expectations—Memory
tasks customarily expected of individuals in certain relationships
(e.g., knowledge that people of a certain occupation are expected
to know).
Memory savvy—Knowledge
about how to recognize memory problems, link them with appropriate
manipulations, and adjust your performance to fit the memory tasks
that arise.
Memory slips—The recalls
of something other than what was intended.
Memory span—The number
of items recalled in correct order from a list.
Memory stereotypes—Beliefs
people hold about the memory performance of others in a particular
group (gender, race, physical appearance, or occupation).
Memory strategies—The mental
activities used to enhance learning and retrieval.
Memory tasks—There are
four categories of memory tasks: knowledge, events, intentions, and
actions.
Memory tasks imposed by others—Situations
in which social norms dictate that a person must perform certain memory
tasks.
Memory test battery—A collection
of standardized memory tasks that is administered to measure an individual's
memory functioning.
Mental status exam—An interview
in which the examiner assesses the individual's cognitive abilities.
Metamemory—Knowledge and
beliefs about how to perform memory tasks and about a person's awareness
of one's own memory processes, abilities and interests.
Metamemory questionnaires—Tests
of self-knowledge of memory performance and memory strategy use (see
memory questionnaires).
Method of loci—A mnemonic
in which a person memorizes a set of familiar locations (such as the
rooms in one's house) and then mentally places each item on a list
in the different rooms of the house.
Midbrain—This
structure is the segue between hindbrain and forebrain; it houses
a number of relay stations that transmit signals from the spinal nerves
and hindbrain to the cerebral cortex. The midbrain also includes some
of the centers from which sensory motor integration (i.e., eye movements)
and reflexes are initiated. Among these are a pair of nuclei known
as the superior colliculus, which control the eye's reflex actions,
as well as the inferior colliculus, another nuclei duo in control
of auditory reflexes. While these more complex relay sites are located
at the top of the midbrain, the more primitive reflexes in response
to pain, temperature, movement, and touch are relayed from its base.
Misinformation effect—The
effect of leading questions about a previous event on a person's memory
for the event.
Mnemonics—Knowledge about
the ways of learning or remembering.
Mnemonist—Someone with
a superior memory due to extensive knowledge and practice with mnemonics.
Mood-dependent memory—The
hypothesis that memories may be retrieved best when a person's mood
at the time of retrieval is the same as when learning occurred (see
encoding specificity and state-dependent memory).
Mood induction—Presenting
stimuli that elicit a particular mood state.
Motivated forgetting—Forgetting
due to conscious suppression or repression of a memory.
Motivation—The influence
of incentives and drives on a person's attempt to perform memory tasks.
Motor
neuron—Responsible
for transmitting the electrical pulses that initiate movement, the
cell bodies of these neurons are located in the brain and spinal cord.
Their axons extend outward into the body (in someone like Shaquille
O'Neil these can be several feet long!), ending when the axon (nerve)
terminal comes in contact with either individual muscle fibers to
cause contraction or relaxation, or glands to stimulate secretions.
Muscles and glands are also called effectors.
Multi-Infarct Dementia —dementia
brought on by a series of strokes.
Multi-modal Theoretical Perspective—The
hypothesis that memory is best improved by taking account of all psychological
modes (such as perceptual, motivational, physiological, emotional,
social).
Multiple personality disorder—When
a person's personality structure divides into two or more distinct
identities (see psychogenic amnesia and psychogenic fugue).
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