Types of Knowledge & Memory

Long-Term Memory - Its size is considered to be infinite for practical purposes. In other words, we will not run out of memory in our lifetimes. Long-term memory has a relatively slow access time of 100 milliseconds and can be characterized by several types of knowledge and memory stores, as follows:

• Declarative or Explicit Knowledge - Static knowledge about things in the world such as facts and experiences that we can recall under conscious control. Tulving (1972) proposed division of explicit memory into episodic and semantic memory.
  • Semantic Memory - This is information that has lost its time reference. That is, we know the information, facts, and concepts, but we cannot remember where or when the information was acquired. This is our generic knowledge of the world.
  • Episodic Memory - These memories are associated with a specific time or episode in our life and is in serial form. These are specific incidents from our past that we can "relive" by remembering incidental details of an event.
• Procedural or Implicit Knowledge - Dynamic knowledge of how to do things in the world. Examples are: driving, biking, typing, the physical component of writing, or playing tennis. This knowledge is recalled with conscious effort. It can also be thought of as knowledge that we have--but cannot express verbally. We express this knowledge by doing.