Which term describes the ability to identify something encountered before?

The ability to identify something that has been encountered before is termed recognition. This cognitive process involves the retrieval of information from memory and is often associated with the feeling of familiarity that arises when one sees or hears something that has previously been experienced. Recognition is typically contrasted with recall, which requires one to retrieve information without any cues or prompts.

For example, when you see a face in a crowd that you remember from an earlier encounter and confirm that it is someone you know, you are using recognition. This is frequently tested in memory research through tasks that involve recognizing previously learned information, like identifying the correct answers from a list or picking out a familiar image.

The other terms are related to memory but describe different processes. Recall focuses on retrieving information without specific cues, operation refers to a mental process utilized in problem-solving or manipulating information, and schema represents a mental framework that organizes and interprets information but does not specifically relate to the ability to identify previously encountered items.