THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYa sense, procedural memories for skills are a kind of implicit memory
too – these are abilities you’ve memorized but which you would have a
hard time articulating. In contrast, explicit memories are those that you
can call to mind at will and talk about.
Related to this is the distinction between verbatim and gist memory. The
former describes a precise, highly accurate memory for what happened or
what was said. Verbatim memory usually fades rapidly, leaving behind a
memory of the gist of what happened – its meaning and implications.
Another distinction in memory research is between recognition
and recall, which overlaps somewhat with the distinction made earlier
between implicit and explicit memory. Imagine that you are given a list
of words to remember and that your memory is then tested the next day.
Asking you to report as many of the words as possible that had been
on the list would be a test of recall, whereas asking you to distinguish
between the words on the original list and words added to it would be a
recognition test. Recognition is often easier, although it can be prone to
error if the new items are similar in meaning to the old.
False and dynamic memories
Experts used to think of memory as akin to a video recording of what’s
happened, fixed as an indelible trace in the brain. It’s now recognized
that memory is in fact a creative, reconstructive process. Rather than
pulling out a dusty old file from the archives, your brain recreates past
experiences based on the gist of what happened. This is why we’re so
prone to false memories.
You can experience a false memory by attempting to memorize the
following list of fifteen words with just one read through: volley, return,
ball, court, serve, umpire, backhand, racket, line, Wimbledon, shot,
forehand, net, lob. After you’ve read them, put the book down, wait five
minutes and then look at this next list (try to keep the earlier list covered
up). Your task is to identify which words are new and which are from
the original list: lob, umpire, tree, crocodile, lamp, tennis, car, bottle,
serve, restaurant, volley, court, computer, garden, chimney. Now check
how well you did against the original list. If you wrongly identified the
word “tennis” as being in the original list then you’ve experienced a false
memory caused by the human tendency to store the gist of things rather
than a verbatim record. Most of the time, gist memory serves us well,
but its vulnerability to generating false memories can cause problems,
especially when it comes to witness testimony in court (see p.256).