Psychology2016

236 CHAPTER 6

The other kind of factual memory is the personal knowledge that each person has

of his or her daily life and personal history, a kind of autobiographical* memory (LePort

et al., 2012). Memories of what has happened to people each day, certain birthdays, anni-

versaries that were particularly special, childhood events, and so on are called episodic

memory, because they represent episodes from their lives. Unlike nondeclarative and

semantic long-term memories, episodic memories tend to be updated and revised more

or less constantly. You can probably remember what you had for breakfast today, but what

you had for breakfast 2 years ago on this date is most likely a mystery. Episodic memories

that are especially meaningful, such as the memory of the first day of school or your first

date, are more likely to be kept in LTM (although these memories may not be as exact as

people sometimes assume they are). The updating process is a kind of survival mecha-

nism, because although semantic and nondeclarative memories are useful and necessary

on an ongoing basis, no one really needs to remember every little detail of every day. As

becomes obvious later, the ability to forget some kinds of information is very necessary.

Episodic and semantic memories are explicit memories because they are easily

made conscious and brought from long-term storage into short-term memory. The

knowledge of semantic memories such as word meanings, science concepts, and so on

can be brought out of the “filing cabinet” and placed on the “desk” where that knowl-

edge becomes explicit, or obvious. The same is often true of personal, episodic memories.

But sometimes I can’t remember all the names of the planets

or what I had for breakfast yesterday. Doesn’t that make these

memories implicit instead of explicit?

The difference between implicit memories, such as how to balance on a bicycle, and

explicit memories, such as naming all the planets, is that it is impossible or extremely

difficult to bring implicit memories into consciousness. Explicit memories can be forgot-

ten but always have the potential to be made conscious. When someone reminds you of

what you had for breakfast the day before, for example, you will remember that you had

that knowledge all along—it was just temporarily “mislaid.” For a look at the connec-

tions among all these types of LTM, see Figure 6.4.

episodic memory
type of declarative memory containing
personal information not readily avail-
able to others, such as daily activities
and events. *autobiographical: the story of a person’s life as told by that person.

Declarative memory

(Explicit memory)

Episodic memory

Events experienced

by a person

Semantic memory

Facts, general

knowledge

Nondeclarative memory

(Implicit memory)

Motor skills, habits,

classically conditioned reflexes

Long-term memory

Figure 6.4 Types of Long-Term Memories

Long-term memory can be divided into declarative memories, which are factual and typically conscious

(explicit) memories, and nondeclarative memories, which are skills, habits, and conditioned responses

that are typically unconscious (implicit). Declarative memories are further divided into episodic memories

( personal experiences) and semantic memories (general knowledge).