Nexilist Notebook

I used to think of memory as one thing, sort of like a tape recorder where you stored stuff and then replayed it. But then I began to wonder how it was that someone could have amnesia and still remember how to read, write, talk, get around, etc. Obviously, there was more to it. So I read up on memory and found that there were two types of memory. The first one, “episodic”, deals with what happened to you, places, times, events.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory

The second, “semantic”, deals with what you know, facts, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_memory

So you could explain the situation with amnesia as a case where you lost episodic memory but not semantic.

However, that was not the end of it. A lot of what we know how to do is unconscious. If you know how to play tennis, try thinking about serving while you are doing it. You will probably screw it up. That’s because you have what they call “muscle” memory that does not require conscious direction once learned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory

For a long time, I thought that there were only these 3 kinds of memory. Then I can across some research that talked about something called priming memory. Apparently, you can be unconsciously “primed” by words and other stimuli that do not reach the level of consciousness but that can bias your thoughts. For instance, if we were doing a word association test on the word “bank”, I could flash a word on a screen too fast for you to see it consciously but it would still prime you. If I flashed “Wells Fargo”, you might associate “money” with “bank” but if I flashed “Mississippi”, you might associate “river” with “bank”. So, now we have a fourth type of memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_%28psychology%29

Then I found a diagram which showed a total of 7 different types of memory. In addition to the 4 above, there are also emotional memory,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_memory

skeletal responses

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/mustrn.htm

and reflexes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexes

I may have come across other types of memory but I don’t remember….