US High School Psychology Complete Practice Exam 2025

The term that describes the retention of information or experience over time is memory. Memory encompasses the processes that are involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving information, which allows individuals to retain knowledge and experiences from the past. This ability to remember is vital for many aspects of daily life, from learning new skills to recalling personal events.

Learning, while related to memory, specifically refers to the process of acquiring new information or behaviors, rather than the retention of that information over time. Recall and recognition are both processes that involve retrieving information from memory, but they do not themselves define the concept of retaining information. Recall is the ability to bring to mind information without cues, while recognition involves identifying previously learned information when encountered again. Thus, memory is the most accurate term for the overall process of retention.