Implicit Memory: History and Current Status

Daniel L. Schacter · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition · 1987 · cognitive-psychology · 10.1037/0278-7393.13.3.501 · record schacter1987-implicit-memory
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית
Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (pdftext); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. This is a narrative critical review, not a meta-analysis: it reports no pooled statistics, so method = 'review' rather than 'systematic-review' or 'meta-analysis'. Claim type is 'existence' (implicit/explicit dissociations occur across tasks and populations); a 'critique' reading is also available given the verdict that no theory fits all the data, and that verdict is recorded under limitations instead. The paper is careful that its own terms are descriptive: 'Accordingly, the concepts of implicit and explicit memory neither refer to, nor imply the existence of, two independent or separate memory systems.' 2026-08-19 and 2026-08-25 schema-0.3 passes: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node.
This record’s own method is review, and the tags below follow from that. A review’s findings, quantities and statistics are things stated IN this paper, and some of them report results obtained elsewhere. No tag on this page names a different author. Measured across every review in this corpus, 81% of a review’s tags carry no citation at all — most of them are the review speaking. The corpus does not adjudicate the rest: read an unmarked tag as a claim this paper makes, not necessarily one it made first.
How to read this page. The article itself is not reproduced here — this paper is not cleared for redistribution, so what follows is the tag layer alone. The evidence sentences are withheld with the article. The table at the foot lists every tag the record carries; each row names the facet it belongs to, and the whose words column says whether the tag records the paper's own wording or the tagger's sentence about the paper. Every tag links to each other paper in the corpus carrying it. The machine-readable edition of the same thing is the TEI file beside this one, where the tags live in standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.
Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
awareness 3 fields · priming 2 fields · repetition priming 2 fields · statistical-significance 2 fields

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 5 concept tags on this paper, 4 are grounded in a quoted sentence. 2 carry the tagger's gloss of what the term means in this paper, which is not something the article can license.
implicit memory priming explicit memory conscious recollection repetition priming recollection awareness retrieval amnesic statistical-significance review

Legend

relation to other workclaim_relationshow this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim typeclaim_typethe shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept edgeconcept_edgesan asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it
conceptconceptsan idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tagcontent_tagsa finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
limitationlimitationswhat the paper says its evidence cannot support
methodmethodhow the paper produced its evidence
phenomenonphenomenonthe effect or regularity under study
sensesensesa distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it
transfertransfersa method or concept carried in from another field

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.13.3.501. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 2 · claim_type 1 · concept_edges 3 · concepts 4 · content_tags 3 · limitations 3 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 4 · transfers 1

Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 3 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.

This record holds no controls or mechanisms. A layer is empty when the tagger recorded nothing in it — which is not the same as the paper having nothing to record.

facettagfieldconf.whose words
claim_typeexistence
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
claim_typethe paper's words
phenomenonimplicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
phenomenonthe paper's words
methodreview
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
also in: review
methodthe paper's words
limitationsThe review cannot settle whether implicit and explicit memory rest on one system or several
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
limitations[0]the tagger's words
limitationsNone of the three main theoretical positions surveyed accounts for all the evidence
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
limitations[1]the tagger's words
limitationsThere are no firm criteria for deciding between multiple-system and single-system explanations
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
limitations[2]the tagger's words
transfersthe concept of unconscious cerebration, and the interest in implicit memory that followed from it, is traced to a general nineteenth-century attempt to relate physiology and psychology
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
transfers[0]0.9the tagger's words
conceptsimplicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
concepts[0]the paper's words
conceptsexplicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
concepts[2]the paper's words
conceptsconscious recollection
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
concepts[3]0.95the paper's words
conceptsrepetition priming
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
concepts[4]0.95the paper's words
sensesTHE PAIR IS DEFINED IN ONE SENTENCE BY ONE CRITERION APPLIED BOTH WAYS: `Quotation withheld.` Both are defined by what the TASK demands, not by what the memory IS. Same move Finkbeiner2011 makes for `subliminal` - the phenomenon is the outcome of a measurement - and it is why this distinction survived while the theories about it did not
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[0]0.95the tagger's words
sensesAND THE RECORD DATES ITS OWN VOCABULARY: `Graf and Schacter (1985, 1987; Schacter & Graf, 1986a, 1986b) have labeled this type of memory implicit memory, and have used the term explicit memory to refer to conscious recollection.` A paper that says who named the thing, when, and in which papers - two years before this review, by one of its own authors. Most of this corpus inherits `implicit memory` as vocabulary; this record can tell a reader where it came from, which is what the term-coiner layer exists to do
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[1]0.95the tagger's words
sensesAND IT NAMES THE NEGATIVE SPACE IN ITS OWN HISTORY, TWICE. `Quotation withheld.` And on the modern literature: `there is a sense in which the entire literature on transfer of training may be perceived as the study of implicit memory, researchers did not view it as such and did not elaborate any distinctions like the one between implicit and explicit.` A densely populated region of research that had no name until somebody drew the line - said by the person who drew it. That is the `missing terms / negative space` argument with a worked historical case attached
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[2]0.95the tagger's words
sensesAND THE ACCOUNT IT REPORTS THE FIELD ABANDONING IS THE OBVIOUS ONE: `The most popular idea was that implicit memory phenomena were produced by memory traces that are TOO WEAK to exceed the threshold of strength or activation needed for EXPLICIT memory.` One dimension, one threshold, implicit memory as sub-threshold explicit memory. A corpus that holds only current accounts cannot show what was given up - and this one is worth holding because the strength account is what every dissociation in this corpus is evidence against, including Bruce1998's dose asymmetry and Kirsner1986's crossover
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[3]0.95the tagger's words
claim_relationsbuilds-on → Graf and Schacter (1985)
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
claim_relations[0]the tagger's words
claim_relationscontradicts → the trace-strength/threshold account of implicit memory (Herbart, 1896; Leibniz, 1916; Korsakoff, 1889; Prince, 1914)
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
claim_relations[1]the tagger's words
concept_edgesimplicit memory —distinct-from→ explicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
strength of the relation: 0.95 · note: THE DEFINITION IS THE EDGE. One sentence defines both by the same criterion - whether the task requires conscious recollection - applied in opposite directions, so the distinction is constitutive rather than empirical. Weight 0.95: this is the sentence the field took the pair from. Note what it does NOT claim: not that they are separate systems, only that they are separately revealed. The systems argument is elsewhere in the paper and is much weaker, which the fourth sense records.
concept_edges[0]0.95the tagger's words
concept_edgesimplicit memory —distinct-from→ conscious recollection
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: THE NAMING SENTENCE, AND IT CARRIES THE CONTRAST THE TERM WAS COINED TO MARK. 'implicit memory' was introduced for the case where memory shows without conscious recollection, and 'explicit memory' for the case where it needs it. Weight 0.9 rather than 0.95: the quote reports Graf and Schacter's usage rather than asserting the distinction, and the citation is to four papers this corpus does not hold.
concept_edges[1]0.95the tagger's words
concept_edgesrepetition priming —part-of→ implicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: 'MOST OF' IS IN THE QUOTE AND IT IS THE REASON THIS EDGE MATTERS TO THIS PROJECT. Schacter places nearly the whole cognitive-psychology strand of implicit-memory research inside the repetition-priming paradigm - so a corpus about priming and a corpus about implicit memory are nearly the same corpus, and the two literatures cite each other under different names. Weight 0.9: 'most' is a hedge and the claim is a reviewer's characterisation, but it is the reviewer who named the field.
concept_edges[2]0.95the tagger's words
content_tagsimplicit memory facilitates performance without conscious recollection
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
about this quote: QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.
content_tags.findings[0]the tagger's words
content_tagspriming is the central measure of implicit memory
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
content_tags.findings[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsstatistical-significance
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
about this quote: QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.
content_tags.statistics[0]the tagger's words

Interpretive choices

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