Invitation to Psychology

ChaPteR 8 Memory 283

The Contents of Long-Term Memory. Most

theories of memory distinguish skills or habits

(“knowing how”) from abstract or representa-

tional knowledge of facts and events (“know-

ing that”). Procedural memories are memories of

knowing how to do something—comb your hair,

use a pencil, solve a jigsaw puzzle, knit a sweater,

or swim. Many researchers consider procedural

memories to be implicit, because once skills and

habits are learned well, they do not require much

conscious processing. Declarative memories involve

knowing that something is true, as in knowing

that Ottawa is the capital of Canada or that you

once visited there; they are usually assumed to

be explicit.

Declarative memories come in two varie-

ties: semantic memories and episodic memories

(Tulving, 1985). Semantic memories are internal

representations of the world, independent of any

particular context. They include facts, rules, and

concepts—items of general knowledge. On the

basis of your semantic memory of the concept cat,

you can describe a cat as a small, furry mammal that

typically spends its time eating, sleeping, prowling,

and staring into space, even though a cat may not

be present when you give this description, and you

probably won’t know how or when you first learned

it. Episodic memories are internal representations of

personally experienced events. When you remem-

ber how your cat once surprised you in the middle

of the night by pouncing on you as you slept, you

are retrieving an episodic memory. Figure 8.5 sum-

marizes these kinds of memories.

procedural memories

Memories for the perfor-

mance of actions or skills

(“knowing how”).

declarative memories

Memories of facts, rules,

concepts, and events

(“knowing that”); they

include semantic and

episodic memories.

semantic memories

Memories of general

knowledge, including

facts, rules, concepts,

and propositions.

episodic memories
Memories of personally
experienced events and
the contexts in which
searching for, which indicates that information in they occurred.
long-term memory is organized in those terms
(R. Brown & McNeill, 1966). For the name Kevin
they might say, “Wait... it starts with a K and has
two syllables... Kenny? Kerran?... ”
Information in long-term memory may also be
organized by its familiarity, relevance, or association
with other information. The method used in any
given instance probably depends on the nature of
the memory; you would no doubt store informa-
tion about the major cities of Europe differently
from information about your first romantic kiss. To
understand the organization of LTM, then, we must
know what kinds of information can be stored there.

Culture affects the encoding, storage, and retrieval of
information in long-term memory. Navajo healers, who
use stylized, symbolic sand paintings in their rituals,
must commit to memory dozens of intricate visual
designs, because no exact copies are made and the
painting is destroyed after each ceremony.

("Knowing how") ("Knowing that")

(General knowledge) (Personal recollections)

LONG-TERM MEMORY

PROCEDURAL MEMORIES DECLARATIVE MEMORIES

SEMANTIC MEMORIES EPISODIC MEMORIES

FiguRE 8.5 Types of Long-Term Memories
This diagram summarizes the distinctions among long-term memories. A procedural memory might be of learning
how to ride a bike; a declarative memory might be knowing that an eagle is a kind of raptor, or remembering your
best friend’s wedding last year. Can you come up with your own examples of each memory type?