Learning Journal 3
PSY 115
Implicit Memory
Implicit memory is unconscious or automatic memory that is usually stored via habits, emotional responses, routine procedures, and various sensations. It is memory that remains hidden until a particular stimulus brings it to mind. These memories begin before birth. They are remembered according to situation, unlike explicit memories which are remembered from the answer to a spoken question, or on instinct. Implicit memories can become active through repeated exposure. If an two children sit in a Spanish class, and one spent his infancy in a
Spanishspoken home but had forgotten the language, but the other had English as his first language, the student who was around Spanish speaking as an infant will typically do better in his class because of his implicit memory. Science shows that the brain is extremely active in early infancy, thus explaining why the child who was surrounded by Spanish as an infant, will do better in his class. The first weeks of class will serve as a “reminder session”. Reminders can also function in terms of smells, people and places. Implicit memory is often the explanation of the phenomenon of déjà vu. While researching this term of information processing, I began thinking about the déjà vus that I have had. There is a specific one that I can not remember right now, but it happens over and over again throughout my life. I remember having it in a dream and now I am wondering if it has anything to do with my infancy and if any similar events happened back then to lead to my mind replaying this memory over and over again through the process of déjà vu.