ExplicitMemories and ImplicitMemories

In everyday life, when people speak of memory, they are almost always speaking about what psychologists would call explicit memories. An explicit memory is a conscious or intentional recollection, usually of facts, names, events, or other things that a person can state or declare. There is another kind of memory that is not conscious. Memories of this kind are called implicit memories. An individual can have an experience that he or she cannot consciously recall yet still display reactions that indicate the experience has been somehow recorded in his or her brain.

Ok, uh... the first kind of memory, we’re all very familiar with this, right? You probably remember what you had for dinner last night - you have a Conscious Memory of last night’s dinner. So, urn, if I ask you ’what did you eat last night?’ you could tell me.

But these other kind of memories - ’implicit Memories’, they work differently. Let’s take an example from the world of advertising. When you’re driving along a highway, you’ll see plenty of billboards - you know, road-side advertisements. You certainly dont remember them all. But they still affect you.

Marketing researchers have shown, well, to be specific, let’s say there’s a billboard on the highway advertising a ... car, called the ’Panther’. The ad shows a big picture of a car and above the car in huge letters is the name of the car- ’Panther’. A lot of people drive by the billboard. But ask those drivers later if they saw any advertisements for cars, and well, they’ll think about it and a lot of them will say ’no’. They honestly don’t remember seeing any. They have no conscious memory of the ’Panther’ billboard.

So, you ask the same people a different question. You ask, urn...ok, urn...you ask them to name an animal starting with the letter ’p’. What do you think they’ll answer? Do they say ’pig’? ’Pig’ is the most common animal that starts with the letter ’p’, but they don’t say ’pig’. They say ’Panther’. The billboard had an effect even though the drivers don’t remember ever seeing it.

外显记忆和内隐记忆 

在日常生活中，当人们谈到记忆时，他们几乎总是在谈论心理学家所说的外显记忆。外显记忆是一种有意识的或有意向性的回忆，通常是对事实、名字、事件或其他一个人可以陈述或声明的事情的回忆。还有一种记忆是无意识的。 这种记忆叫做内隐记忆。 一个人可以有一种他或她不能有意识地回忆起来的经历，但仍然表现出反应，表明这种经历以某种方式记录在他或她的大脑中。  

好吧,呃… 第一种记忆，我们都很熟悉，对吧?你可能记得你昨晚吃了什么——你对昨晚的晚餐有一个有意识的记忆。 那么，呃，如果我问你，你昨晚吃了什么?“你可以告诉我。  

但这些其他类型的记忆——“内隐记忆”，它们的作用方式不同。 让我们以广告业为例。 当你在高速公路上开车时，你会看到大量的广告牌——你知道，路边广告。 你当然不记得所有的。 但它们仍然会影响你。  

市场研究人员已经表明，嗯，具体地说，让我们假设在高速公路上有一块广告牌在宣传一个…… 汽车，叫做“黑豹”。 这则广告展示了一辆汽车的大图片，汽车上方用大写字母写着汽车的名字——“黑豹”。 很多人开车经过广告牌。 但是当你问这些司机是否看过汽车广告时，他们会考虑一下，很多人会说“没有”。 他们真的不记得见过。 他们对《黑豹》的广告牌没有有意识的记忆。  

所以，你问同样的人一个不同的问题。你问,嗯…… 好的,嗯…… 你让他们说出一个以字母“p”开头的动物。 你觉得他们会怎么回答?他们说“猪”吗?“Pig”是最常见的以字母“p”开头的动物，但他们不说“Pig”。 他们说“黑豹”。 那块广告牌产生了影响，尽管司机们不记得曾经见过它。