Memory Term Paper

Introduction
Implicit and explicit memories are types of long-term memory defined as the reflection of the events learned over previously. As people learn to walk or talk, or perform different activities, they need to recall such procedures to help them in performing the activities on multiple occasions in the future without any difficulties. The long-term memory might include the body movements such as talking and walking or unconscious memory including memorizing the position of the letters in the keyboard to type without looking at the position of those letters. The implicit memory is the automatic long-term memory associated with various activities such as walking. The explicit memory, on the other hand, refers to the long-term memory including the memory of events attended over time and the names of specific people met in life. The disorders affecting the brain such as dementia or Alzheimer are associated to the explicit memory and defines the reason why people would continue to walk or talk after suffering memory loss even forgetting their names (Cousins et al., 2014).

Read more about Term Paper writing help on Memory here!

Implicit Memory
This type of memory is also known as procedural memory and it refers to the control of activities that people do automatically without thinking such as riding a bicycle, walking, or talking. Apart from the procedural implicit memory, it also includes the priming referring to the use of pictures to remember some colours like the use of grass to remember the green colour.

Brain Structure
The parts of the brain associated with implicit memory include the temporal lobe and hippocampus. It is for this reason that diseases such as Alzheimer do not include loss of implicit memory like walking (Ellis, 2017). The basal ganglia hemisphere, the cerebellum, motor cortex, and the cerebral cortex are all sub-sections of the brain associated with the implicit memory.

Development
Implicit memory develops through repetition. Temporal lobe and hippocampus are the parts of the brain associated with learning how to do things in implicit memory (Taylor, Krakauer, & Ivry, 2014). After learning these things such as eating, walking, and typing, the person would do them automatically without any difficulty. The brain remembers how to perform the implicit functions for a long period after learning how to perform them even when the temporal lobe has seized to function.

Examples of Implicit Memory
The brushing team, typing on a keyboard, using a phone, remembering songs or storylines on movies watched or songs heard previously, walking, running, buttoning, and driving along a familiar route, are some of the common activities associated with implicit memory. Others include driving, playing games, and performing common tasks.

Disorders
Most of the common brain disorders such as Alzheimer do not affect implicit memory. However, advanced stages of such diseases may affect implicit memory. For example, an Alzheimer patient may forget to hold a folk or walk after a prolonged battle with the condition (Taylor, Krakauer, & Ivry, 2014).

Tests
The common tests for implicit memory include asking the patients to attempt performing automatic tasks such as walking or even asking them to recite common phrases of certain songs they were fond of singing. It should only involve asking the patients to perform common automatic activities they had done previously.

Explicit Memory
The explicit memory concerns long-term memories such as past events, or some knowledge that a person has gathered over a period. There are two primary subsets of explicit memory including episodic and semantic memories. Episodic memory involves the recollection of past events including their dates or names. The semantic memory, however, is the general knowledge of a person. The explicit memory is the most affected by diseases such as Alzheimer and dementia as they erase the long-term memory of their patients (Ellis, 2017).

Brain Structure
The hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the temporal lobe are the brain structure with the primary responsibility of explicit memory. Other brain parts such as the amygdala and anterior thalamus are also responsible for explicit memory such as that dealing with emotions.

Development
Explicit memory differs from the implicit memory since its development may occur from single exposure such as an event. People use explicit memory in learning things in school or at work. Besides, when people visit places or attend events, they also use explicit memory to remember the scenes or facts learnt from such places.

Examples
Memories such as scientific knowledge learnt from school, name of countries and their capitals, procedures, languages are examples of semantic memory. Episodic memory includes thing such as the wedding day, names of tutors in colleges, people met in some events, the date of birth of a child, and memorable vacations or holidays.

Disorders
Most of the common brain disorders affect explicit memory. They include Alzheimer and dementia as well as other forms of memory loss associated with stroke or traumatic brain injury (Taylor, Krakauer, & Ivry, 2014). People suffering from such illnesses would forget about most of the explicit memories like their dates of birth or their wedding dates.

Tests
The tests for explicit memory involve asking the patients about their pasts such as the birthdays of their children, their wedding dates among others.

References
Cousins, J. N., El-Deredy, W., Parkes, L. M., Hennies, N., & Lewis, P. A. (2014). Cued memory reactivation during slow-wave sleep promotes explicit knowledge of a motor sequence. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(48), 15870-15876.
Ellis, N. C. (2017). Implicit and explicit knowledge about language. Language Awareness and Multilingualism, 1-12.
Taylor, J. A., Krakauer, J. W., & Ivry, R. B. (2014). Explicit and implicit contributions to learning in a sensorimotor adaptation task. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(8), 3023-3032.