Glossary / Lexicon

Deutsch: Erinnerung / Español: Recuerdo / Português: Recordação / Français: Rappel / Italiano: Richiamo

A recall is to supply or reproduce memorized information with a minimum of external cues; to produce a fact, a word, or other item from memory; The retrieval of information in which the processor must generate most of the information without aids. Process of remembering information without the help of hints or cues; memory task in which the individual must reproduce material from memory without any cues. For Aristotle, the active mental search for the recollection of past experiences. See also Recognition.

Recall in the psychology context refers to the mental process of retrieving information stored in memory without the use of explicit cues or stimuli. This cognitive function is crucial for many daily activities and tasks, allowing individuals to access past experiences, knowledge, and information autonomously.

Description

Recall is a type of long-term memory retrieval that does not rely on recognizing information among options but requires retrieving the information from memory independently. It can be categorized into different types based on the nature of the information retrieved:

• Free recall: Retrieving items from memory in any order. For example, recalling a list of grocery items.
• Serial recall: Retrieving items in the order in which they were originally learned. For instance, recalling a sequence of events from a day.
• Cued recall: Retrieving information with the aid of some cues or prompts, which serve to stimulate memory recall.

Application Areas

Recall is fundamental in various psychological fields:

• Educational Psychology: Understanding how students recall information helps in designing effective teaching methods and assessments.
• Cognitive Psychology: Studying recall processes illuminates how memories are formed, stored, and retrieved.
• Clinical Psychology: Assessing recall abilities can help diagnose and treat memory-related disorders such as amnesia and dementia.

Well-Known Examples

The study of recall in psychological research often involves standardized memory tests, such as:

• Word lists or digit span tasks used to test short-term and long-term memory recall capabilities.
• The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), which assesses the ability to encode, consolidate, store, and retrieve verbal information.

Treatment and Risks

Impaired recall ability can indicate neurological or cognitive issues. Conditions like Alzheimer's disease, other forms of dementia, or traumatic brain injuries often involve deficits in recall. Psychological interventions, cognitive therapies, and medications may be used to manage and mitigate these symptoms.

Similar Terms

Related to recall in the memory process are:

• Recognition, another form of memory retrieval, which involves identifying information from a set of options, such as recognizing a familiar face in a crowd.
• Retrieval, a broader term that includes all forms of memory recall, including recognizing and recalling information.

Weblinks

• allerwelt-lexikon.de: 'Erinnerung' in the allerwelt-lexikon.de (German)

Articles with 'Recall' in the title

• Cued recall: Cued recall refers to a recollection that is prompted by a cue associated with the setting in which the recalled event originally occurred. In memory research, Cued recall is a task in which a participant recalls information after being giv . . .
• Free recall: Free recall is defined as a recollection that is not prompted by specific cues or prompts. In memory research, a task in which a participant recalls information without specific cues or prompts
• Unaided recall: Unaided recall refers to a questioning approach in which the respondent is asked to remember an object of interest without the assistance of clues from the researcher
• Prompted recall: Prompted recall refers to a method of measuring forgetting in which hints or "prompts" about the behavior to be performed are provided. Prompted recall is also known as Cued recall
• Mood-congruent recall: Mood-congruent recall: Mood-congruent recall refers to the idea that positive feelings will activate positive memories and negative feelings will activate negative memories
• Free recall learning: Free recall learning: Free recall learning refers to the learning and recalling of a list of items.
• Paired-associate recall: Paired-associate recall refers to a memory task in which a pair of words is given, for example, mongoose- elephant, then later the first word (mangoose) is provided and the task is to recall the second word (the elephant)
• Twenty-four-hour recall: Twenty-four-hour recall: twenty-four-hour recall is a technique of recording the type and amount of food (nutrients) consumed during a twenty-four-hour period

Summary

Recall in psychology is a vital cognitive process involving the retrieval of information from memory without external cues. It plays a significant role in learning, day-to-day functioning, and the clinical assessment of memory health, highlighting the complexities of human memory and cognition.

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