Implicit Memory
(This page last updated 12 October, 2006.)
Explicit Memory
Memory with awareness. You are aware that info is stored in your
memory, and that you can retrieve it and use it.
Implicit memory is demonstrated by indirect tests.
Subjects are not asked to explicitly remember what they have
experienced previously.
See details on the experiments summarized below in the textbook,
pp. 175-187.
Jacoby (1983)
Three conditions
- no context
- context
- generate
- Recognition Test
- Performance best in generate condition.
- Performance worst in no-context condition.
- Measuring primarily explicit memory.
- Tachistoscopic Word Identification
- Performance best in no-context condition.
- Performance worst in generate condition.
- Measuring primarily implicit memory.
Repetition Priming found in
- Lexical Decision
- Word Stem Completion
- Picture Naming
One type of implicit memory is related to familiarity.
- Famous Names Test
- List of names presented 24 hours previously.
- Some names generate enough familiarity to be mistaken for
famous names.
- Illusion of Truth
- Statements seen previously rated as more believable.
- Believable even if told they are false when first
presented.
- Source Confusion
- Staged event.
- Mug shots showing person not in staged event.
- Person from mug shots picked out of lineup as being in
staged event.
Familiarity seems to be related to processing fluency.
Whittlesea, Jacoby, & Girard (1990)
- Subjects more likely to report word as familiar when it is
easier to read.
- Words seen previously are rated as being clearer to see than
words not seen before.
- Familiarity can be confused for processing fluency, just as
processing fluency can be confused for familiarity
Skill learning is one type of implicit memory.
- mirror reading
- mirror tracing
- bicycle riding
- musical performance
The chart below summarizes the relationships between the
different types of memory that we have discussed.
next class: Amnesia
Psych 315: Cognitive
Psychology 
Kyle Cave
Psychology Dept.
U.
Mass.