4:3 nondeclarative memory

When and Where: I found nondeclarative memory when I was reading chapter 1 from Fisher and Frey's text, for my jigsaw group.

"Nondeclarative memory, also know as implicit or procedural memory, is associated less with the hippocampus and more with the sections of the brain that house specific sensory inputs. For example, how to swing a bat is associated with the motor cortex, whereas recognizing a melody is associated with the temporal lobe. Nondeclarative memories involve routines, skills, and behaviors that cannot be expressed in a declarative way. Nondeclarative memories do not require conscious attention or recall. For example, walking is a nondeclarative skill that most of us don't have to think about" (Fisher & Fry, pp 15-16).

Definition: The definition can be taken right from the text.
Fisher & Frey define the word as:

"Nondeclarative memories involve routines, skills, and behaviors that cannot be expressed in a declarative way. Nondeclarative memories do not require conscious attention or recall."

To simplify this, nondeclarative memory is a skill, routine, or behavior that one does with conscious attention or recall. Its an action we do without much thought.

In Context: The teacher wanted the students to develop the skill of connecting the text to their own background knowledge as part of their nondeclarative memory so the students would not need her prompting to use this skill.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this term used before, in many of my other literacy classes. But I haven't heard the term used in a while so I wanted to refresh my knowledge on the word's meaning since this is an important term to know.


Reflective Commentary: This term, nondeclarative memory, is an important word to know for literacy. We learn about this during LTED 600 when talking about the dimensions of literacy. It is important for students to have developed the necessary reading skills that help them comprehend the text when reading. Students only have grasped the full extent of these skills when they are able to complete them without knowing it or needing help. Once students use the skills without thinking about them, it is part of their nondeclarative memory.