Glossary
Implicit Memory
What is implicit memory?
Implicit memory is the influence of past experience on performance without requiring conscious recollection of that experience. It is usually discussed as a form of long-term memory. Examples include some forms of priming, skill learning and conditioning. It does not mean that the person is unaware of the task or uses no conscious attention.
Types and examples of implicit memory
- Procedural memory supports learned skills, such as familiar finger movements when typing.
- Perceptual priming can make a previously encountered item easier to identify.
- Conditioning concerns learned associations between events or between actions and consequences.
These are different forms of learning grouped by how past experience is expressed, not one mechanism doing every job.
Different forms, different brain systems
Squire’s review links gradual, feedback-guided habit learning with the neostriatum, part of the basal ganglia. It also describes the cerebellum’s role in delay eyeblink conditioning, a specific form of learning an anticipatory blink. These examples show why the memory form and task matter: evidence about conditioned blinking does not map every learned emotional response or skill to the cerebellum.
How implicit memory is measured
Different forms rely on partly distinct neural systems; there is no single implicit-memory store. Researchers use indirect tests, such as changes in perceptual identification or practiced skill performance. Better performance alone does not prove that learning was unconscious: explicit knowledge and other processes can contribute.
Related concepts
Explicit memory concerns conscious access to facts and events. Procedural learning is one form of nondeclarative memory, not a synonym for all implicit memory. Implicit attitudes and scores on an association test are related research topics, but are not direct measures of a unitary memory system.
Why implicit memory matters
A person can improve at a task without being able to describe the episode in which they learned it. This separation has been important in research on amnesia and in the development of theories of multiple memory systems. It also explains why asking someone what they remember is not the only way to assess learning.
For education and rehabilitation, the practical question is which form of learning a task uses and what the person can retain. Preserved performance in some forms of amnesia does not mean all implicit memory survives brain injury.