Psychobiology of Memory

Our understanding of psychobiology of memory is largely dependent on the neuropsychological studies of humans and neurophysiological examinations of non-human primates. The knowledge about memory system has largely come from experimental studies, clinical cases, neuropsychological investigations, and brain imaging techniques. The findings indicate that human memory system is divisible, a summary of which has been mentioned above. Different types of memory help us develop an exclusive sense of a personal history.

Other than the way memory has been classified above, people also classify long-term memory as explicit and implicit memories. Explicit memory has been further classified as semantic and episodic memory. Other forms of memory are typically implicit. Tulving (1984, 1985) has described memory as a hierarchically organized system with a set of correlated processes. The lower system supports the higher one. For example, implicit memory is at the lowest level in the hierarchy facilitating connections between stimuli and responses. Implicit memory does not depend upon conscious recollection of earlier experience whereas explicit memory involves conscious awareness. It is assumed that initially the semantic memory system develops making one understand the world and eventually it provides structure and meaning to the episodic memory system.