Reading
Procedural Memory
The memories people form when they learn names and facts are different from the memories they form when they learn how to perform a task.These memories of performing particular actions are called procedural memories. Procedural memories are memories of the process of performing a task that become automatic with practice. Once a task has been practiced, or repeated many times, procedural memories are established.These procedural memories allow people to perform the action automatically and to recall it relatively easily many years later.
Listening
Narrator: Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic from a Psychology class.
Professor: I've experienced this kind of thing myself.
When I was a boy, I took guitar lessons.
And in my first lessons, my guitar teacher...
She showed me how to hold the guitar and how to place my fingers on the strings.
Every day when I got home,
I would play the guitar for hours.
And after a couple years spending time like this playing at home,
I could just pick up my guitar and play music without thinking about it.
But after college, I stopped playing,
and for years I never played or even picked up a guitar.
Then the other day, I found my old guitar.
I was amazed to discover that when I picked it up,
I knew how to play, even though I hadn't played in years.
I just picked it up and right away,
I found that I still knew where to press my fingers to play the right notes.
Now, I couldn't explain to you exactly how I was moving each finger,
or exactly why I had to press the string at one point and not another,
but I could still play my favorite songs.
Question
Explain how the example from the lecture illustrates the concept of procedural memory.
