From A Procedural Memory Standpoint, Why Is The Mirror-drawing Task So Difficult?

How Procedural Retentiveness Works

By Ayesh Perera, published January 26, 2021

Take-home Messages

Procedural memory is a category of long-term memory that involves recollections to which a person has no direct conscious awareness. It can only be demonstrated indirectly through some blazon of motor activeness, for instance, how to swim or ride a bike
Procedural retention is a part of the implicit long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things.
Professor Brenda Milner'southward experiments with the amnesic patient Henry Molaison (HM) played a vital role in the initial scientific investigation into procedural retentiveness.
HM was able to form some types of LTM after his surgery just not others. He was able to acquire a new motor skill 'mirror drawing' but he could non remember learning information technology. This suggests a distinction tin exist fabricated between procedural and explicit memories.
The functioning of procedural memory involves the functions of the dorsolateral striatum, the cerebellum, and the limbic system.
Studies show that REM (Rapid Center Movement) sleep following SWS (Slow-Moving ridge Slumber), immediately after the acquisition of a new skill significantly enhances procedural memory consolidation.

Procedural memory is a type of long-term implicit memory that involves the performance of sure cognitive and motor tasks without the conscious retrieval of by information (Lum, Conti-Ramsden, Page & Ullman, 2011). Information technology is the memory for skilled actions, such as how to castor your teeth, how to drive a car, how to swim the crawl (freestyle) stroke.

Procedural memories are inadvertently retrieved and unconsciously used for the performance of various motor skills and cognitive tasks.

Examples of Procedural Memory

Actions involving procedural retentiveness often include tasks learned early in babyhood, which accept get ingrained over time through repetition. The post-obit tasks apply procedural retentivity:

Walking

Tying shoes

Riding a wheel

Swimming

Reading

History and Groundwork

Serious psychological and philosophical discussion on the topic of retentiveness has existed for nearly two centuries. The American psychologist and philosopher William James (1890) was among the early figures to point out the possible deviation between habit and memory.

Despite much investigation to retentiveness, however, Brenda Milner of McGill Academy is by and large credited with producing the beginning convincing bear witness in 1962, indicating a division between declarative memory and procedural memory (Squire, 2004).

This was demonstrated via her experiments with the amnesic patient H.G. (Henry Molaison). H.1000. had had a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy to cure his epilepsy (Squire, 2009). The partially successful surgery had left him unable to class new memories.

Withal, H.M. was able to learn mirror drawing which involved mitt-heart coordination. H.One thousand.'s feel indicated that a single system did not constitute the entirety of memory.

Subsequent inquiry conducted on amnesic patients revealed that this ability to learn and perform certain activities extended beyond motor skills (such as mirror drawing), and included cerebral tasks as well. Some had suggested that amnesia might merely exist a retrieval deficit.

However, it was later confirmed that amnesia involved an actual memory deficit (rather than a mere retrieval deficit), just that it still left unharmed a domain for retentivity which is used for skill development.

Procedural Memory vs. Declarative Retentiveness

Cohen and Squire (1980) drew a distinction between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.

Procedural knowledge involves "knowing how" to do things. It included skills, such equally "knowing how" to playing the pianoforte, ride a bike; necktie your shoes and other motor skills.

Procedural memory is a type of long-term implicit memory which is formed unconsciously and retrieved effortlessly. For instance, we brush our teeth with little or no sensation of the skills involved.

Declarative cognition involves "knowing that", for instance London is the majuscule of England, zebras are animals, your mum's birthday etc. There are 2 types: semantic memory and episodic retention.

Declarative memory (also known as explicit memory) is a type of long-term memory which involves the intentional and conscious recollection of previous personal experiences and learned information (Hine & Tsushima, 2018).

Recalling information from declarative memory involves some degree of conscious endeavor – information is consciously brought to mind and "alleged".

It is besides important to note that procedural memories are relatively harder to explicate (Cherry, 2020). For instance, it is difficult to fully explain in words how to bulldoze a car. Nevertheless, communicating the details of how to fix a car engine in a classroom (past retrieving one'southward declarative retention) is relatively easier.

Evidence for the distinction between declarative and procedural memory has come from research on patients with amnesia. Typically, amnesic patients take great difficulty in retaining episodic and semantic information following the onset of amnesia.

Their memory for events and knowledge acquired before the onset of the condition tends to remain intact, simply they can't store new episodic or semantic memories. In other words, information technology appears that their power to retain declarative information is impaired.

However, their procedural memory appears to exist largely unaffected. They tin recall skills they have already learned (due east.g. riding a bike) and learn new skills (e.g. learning to drive).

Improving Procedural Memory

Research indicates that sleep aids the development of procedural knowledge via ongoing memory consolidation which passes new memories from a fragile status to a robust and stable state (Walker, Brakefield, Morgan, Hobson & Stickgold, 2002). This is especially truthful when the initial phase of memory conquering is immediately followed by sleep.

Even though the consolidation of procedural memories was long considered to be solely a function of time, recent studies point that for some types of learning, sleep solitary enhances memory consolidation (Brashers-Krug, Shadmehr &, 1996) (Fischer, Hallschmid, Elsner & Born, 2002).

Brief naps involving non-rapid eye move, all the same, does not seem to improve procedural memory (Siegel, 2001).

Procedural memory is best enhanced by REM (Rapid Centre Movement) sleep following SWS (Slow-Wave Sleep), which comprises stage iii and iv, as well as the deepest blazon of NREM slumber (Karni, Meyer, Rey-Hipolito, Jezzard, Adams, Turner & Ungerleider, 1998).

This fashion of sleep tin be exceedingly beneficial if it immediately ensues the conquering of a new skill. This is because a full night or 24-hour interval of sleep afterward learning a new skill tin can significantly enhance memory consolidation (Mednick et al, 2003).

However, research also points out that these potential gains would be prevented if REM sleep is interrupted (Karni, Meyer, Rey-Hipolito, Jezzard, Adams, Turner & Ungerleider, 1998).

Brain Regions Related to Procedural Memory

The main neuronal prison cell nucleus related to procedural retentivity is the dorsolateral striatum which aids the acquisition of new habits (Alexander & Crutcher, 1990). Additionally, evidence suggests that striatal neural plasticity permits the basal ganglia circuits to help process procedural memory as well as communicate between structures (Kreitzer, 2009).

Moreover, the cerebellum plays a vital function in rectifying the movement and adjusting the motor agility of procedural activities such as playing sports, playing instruments, and painting (Saywell & Taylor, 2008).

The cerebellum also helps automate the unconscious procedure involving procedural skill learning. Recent bear witness implies that the cerebellar cortex holds the engram—which is considered to be the location wherein memory dwells (Nagao & Kitazawa, 2008).

Moreover, the neostriatum which controls procedural memory shares anatomy with the limbic system (Shu, Bao, Li, Chan & Yew, 2000). Although previously considered to exist a functionally separate entity, recent evidence indicates that the MrD (marginal division zone) is linked to memory.

Additionally, dopamine, a neuromodulator related to procedural memory, seems to adapt encephalon processing to new environments which demand behavior modification, thereby impacting neural plasticity within memory systems (Mizumori, Puryear & Martig, 2009).

Furthermore, the examination of synaptic plasticity at the molecular level demonstrates that CREB function mayhap connecting the acquisition and the storage of procedural retention (Pittenger, Fasano, Mazzocchi-Jones, Dunnett, Kandel & Brambilla, 2006).

Most the Author

Ayesh Perera recently graduated from Harvard University, where he studied politics, ethics and religion. He is before long conducting enquiry in neuroscience and tiptop operation as an intern for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, while also working on a book of his ain on constitutional law and legal estimation.

How to reference this article:

Prera, A (2021, Jan 26). Procedural memory. But Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/procedural-retention.html

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How to reference this article:

Prera, A (2021, January 26). Procedural retentivity. Merely Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/procedural-retention.html

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