Types of Memory

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Types of Memory There are actually two basic kinds of learning and memory. One is declarative or explicit; the other is non-declarative or implicit. Knowledge of facts–what we know about places, things and people–and the meaning of these facts is explicit memory. These things must be recalled into consciousness to be used. Patients who have bilateral medial temporal lobe lesions have an inability to learn and remember items of factual knowledge. They can’t remember people that they met the day before. They can’t remember what they did the day before. Some people will further parcel explicit memories as episodic (we remember events) or semantic (we remember facts). As Kandel (2000) points out, in either case the content of all explicit memories can be expressed by declarative statements such as “I was here yesterday” (episodic) and “The hippocampus has something to do with memory”(semantic). Implicit memory involves information about how to perform something; it’s recalled unconsciously. We use implicit memory in trained, reflexive motor or perceptual skills. I know how to drive my car; I know how to get to work. The same people with bilateral medial temporal lobe lesions can learn simple reflexive skills–they habituate and are sensitized, they can be classically and operantly conditioned (see later). They can learn certain perceptual tasks. For example, they can recall a word learned previously when given only the first few letters of the word. At the same time, they deny ever having learned the word previously. Implicit memory is often further parceled as associative and non-associative. There are two well-known types of non-associative learning: habituation and sensitization. Habituation is a decrease in response to a benign stimulus when the stimulus is presented repeatedly. A dog will be aroused when a strange tone is played. If the tone is played over and
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