What Is Declarative Memory?

In the field of psychology, memory is classified differently according to different criteria. Some researchers have divided memory into declarative memory and procedural memory.

Procedural memory is how to remember how to do things, including memory of perceptual skills, cognitive skills and motor skills. Such memories often require multiple attempts before they can be acquired gradually; conscious participation is often not required when using such memories.

Declarative memory refers to the memory of relevant facts and events. It can be obtained in one go through language teaching. Its extraction often requires conscious participation, such as the various textbook knowledge we learn in the classroom and daily life common sense belong to this type of memory. For example, before learning to swim, we may have read some related books and remembered certain movements. This kind of memory is declarative memory. Later, after continuous practice, we turned knowledge into motor skills and really learned to be in the water. Swimming, the memory at this time is procedural memory.

Memory is a psychological process of accumulating and preserving individual experience in the mind. In terms of information processing, it is the process by which the human brain encodes, stores, and extracts information input from the outside. People's perceptions, problems, emotions or activities that they have experienced will leave different degrees of impression in people's minds. Some of these experiences can be retained for a long time and can be restored under certain conditions. This is memory. ^[1]

There are multiple classification methods for memory:

Instant memory, short-term memory and long-term memory

Divided into three types according to memory time.

One is transient memory: the storage time of its information in the human brain is about 0.25 to 2 seconds. The information storage method has a vivid image, and its information capacity is also large. If this sensory information receives further attention, short-term memory is entered.

The second is short-term memory: the information retention time is 5 seconds to 2 minutes, and the information storage method is mostly verbal and auditory, and the information capacity is 7 ± 2 units. If its information is reviewed, it can be entered into long-term memory.

The third is long-term memory: the information retention time is more than 1 minute to many years or even life. Its information capacity is unlimited. The stored information is an organized knowledge system. Its encoding methods are semantic and image. There are individual differences in human memory, which are different in the four qualities of memory agility, persistence, accuracy, and readiness. For example, some people remember quickly, some remember firmly, some have high memory accuracy, and some can quickly and quickly extract memory information. Good memory performance is fast, accurate, and fast. ^[2]

Contextual memory and semantic memory

Tulving (1972) divided long-term memory into two categories: episodic memory and semantic memory.

Contextual memory refers to people's memory of an event based on spatiotemporal relationships. This memory is inseparable from personal experience, such as remembering a meeting or a place you have been to. Because episodic memory is limited by a certain time and space, the information reserve is easily disturbed by various factors, so the memory is not stable enough and not sure enough.

Semantic memory refers to people's memory of general knowledge and laws, and has nothing to do with special places and times. It manifests in the constraints of words, symbols, formulas, rules, concepts, and words, and is rarely disturbed by external factors, so it is relatively stable.

Explicit and Implicit Memory

Implicit memory refers to the unconscious impact of past experience on current work when the individual is unconscious, sometimes called automatic unconscious memory.

In contrast to implicit memory, explicit memory refers to the conscious influence of past experience on current work under the control of consciousness. Its effect on behavior is conscious of the individual, so it is also called consciously controlled memory. ^[1]