Memory Skill

A Memory Skill is a cognitive skill that allows an individual to memorize

• AKA: Memorization.
• Context:
  • It can range from being a Short-Term Memory Skill to being a Long-Term Memory Skill.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Attention Skill.
• See: Memory.

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References

1985

• Ericsson, K. Anders. “Memory skill." Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie 39, no. 2 (1985): 188.
  • QUOTE: Argues that acquired memory skills best account for individual differences in memory performance. W. G. Chase and K. A. Ericsson's (1982) theory that improved memory or memory skills are due to the acquisition of more efficient storage and retrieval processes using long-term memory (LTM) is presented. This theory specifies 3 principles that characterize the structure of memory skills: (1) Information rapidly stored in LTM is encoded in terms of knowledge structures in semantic memory (meaningful encoding); (2) during storage in LTM, special retrieval cues are explicitly associated with the memory encoding of the presented information (retrieval structure); and (3) encoding and retrieval operations using LTM can be dramatically sped up by practice, making the rate of information storage in LTM comparable to that of short-term memory. Empirical evidence of the exceptional performance of a large number of memory experts is examined in the light of these principles. It is contended that strong evidence for these principles has also been found for normal Ss, when they are given more than a couple of hours of practice or training on memory tasks. It is concluded that expert memory skill is related to normal Ss' superior memory for meaningful information

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