Implicit and explicit memory effects in haptic perception

Abstract

There is considerable evidence in the literature showing that memory is not a unitary entity. Old neuropsychological findings from different groups of patients and more recent laboratory studies are in agreement about the major memory systems in the human brain. A distinction is made between declarative or explicit memory and nondeclarative or implicit memory. Of special interest is the distinction in declarative memory between episodic and semantic memory [1]. Episodic memory includes personal experiences and conscious recollection of events in our past. This type of memory is defined by the capacity to retrieve voluntarily facts and events in the spatial-temporal context. On the other hand, semantic memory refers to our general knowledge, including the meaning of words and concepts.