Implicit Memory
 
Tulving - Conscious processes (noetic)
  • allows for awareness; 
  • flexible actions upon events; 
  • semantic memory;
  • effortful or controlled processing (mostly); 
  • “the object of noetic consciousness is the organism’s knowledge of the world.”
    Autonoetic consciousness is self-knowledge
    (necessary for episodic memory or autobiographical
    memory); awareness of one’s subjective identity in time
    and in the world.
Anoetic consciousness ( not knowing) -
  • temporally and spatially bound to the current situation; 
  • capable of perceptually registering, internally representing, and behaviorally responding (to “sense and react to external stimulation); 
  • no reference to nonpresent extraorganismic stimuli and states of the world (procedural memory)
 Implicit memory - the abscence of conscious
      recollection; implicit and explicit memory "are
      descriptive concepts that are primarily concerned
      with a person's psychological experience at the time
      of retrieval" (Schacter, 1987, 501). Do we always
      have conscious access to what is encoded and what
      is retrieved?
 
  •     Jacoby & Dallas (1981) recognition memory

  •       (explicit); word identification (implicit). WI - S is
          presented with a word very rapidly and tries to
          decide what the word is. Ss first given a list of
          words and have to answer questions about the words
          (semantic, rhyming, physical). Ss were then given a
          yes/no recognition memory test.
          Findings: explicit  memory higher for semantic condition but type of
          orienting task had no effect on implicit
          memory. Performance was higher for words
          previously seen regardless of orienting condition.
          Implication: ?
     
  •          Graf, Squire, & Mandler (1984) presented word

  •       lists to amnesics and non-amnesics, Ss rated how
          much they "liked" each word. Ss were then given 1
          of 4 memory tests: free recall, cued recall,
          recognition or word completion (implicit). Implicit
          memory was assessed by the extent to which the
          word completions corresponded to the words on the
          previously presented list. Findings: no difference on
          the implicit test but differences on the explicit tests
     Theories: 
    Activation theory (Jacoby) word presentation leads to automatic activation of its internal representation. This activation may last for a time (minutes, days, months) facilitating performance on implicit tasks. Explicit memory is facilitated by active, elaborative or controlled processing, particularly processing of the word's meaning and its connections with associated words. Automatic activation occurs regardless of the presence or absence of elb. proc.

    Feeling of knowing

              Metcalfe (1987) gave Ss routine  and nonroutine
          problems; asked Ss to predict their ability to solve
          the problems; found: for non-routine problems
          predictions were poor

              Metcalfe and Wiebe (1987) asked Ss to solve routine
          and non-routine probs., at 15 sec. intervals Ss were
          asked to rate how close they were to solving the
          problems; found: when solving routine problems, Ss
          gave "warm" ratings 15s but not 60s from solution;
          for non-routine probs. Ss gave "cool" ratings at 15
          and at 60s. Solvers do not have an accurate "feeling
          of knowing" when solving insight problems.
     

    Processing Theory (Roediger & Blaxton, 1987)
          data driven processes underlie implicit memory performance and concept-driven processes underlie explicit memory performance. Data driven processes are those that are directed by external stimuli and conceptually driven processes are those that are initiated by the person. They include expectations about the nature of the stimuli and      elaborated processing of the stimuli. 
    Evidence: 
    • unconscious repetition priming effects (if shown a stimulus on 2 separate occasions, usually faster to  identify it on the second occasion even if you don't consciously recall its first occurrence). Amnesics exhibit repetition priming on implicit tasks.
              However do amnesics have implicit memory for novel information (eg. unrelated word pairs or non-words). According to the activation theory only words with preexisting representations can be activated thus novel information should not receive activation while processing theorists argue that implicit memory is data driven thus there should be implicit memory for novel information.

              Evidence for; McAndrews, Glisky, & Schacter
          (1987) novel and complex sentences were
          presented with cues designed to facilitate
          understanding. Amnesics had no explicit memory
          for sentences and cues but showed implicit memory
          by generating the appropriate cues when given the
          sentences

              Evidence Against: Schacter & Graf (1986)
          amnesics were unable to reveal implicit memory for
          new associations
     
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