Many consider memory and the process by which it is stored to be a fluid one. Exposed to countless stimuli, almost every second the brain selects those occurrences which are of particular significance and stores them accordingly. This ‘storage’ is grouped together and termed as ‘memory’. What one remembers is often varied. Sometimes a past experience is recalled in detail and can be considered a ‘recollection’, other times such instances are only vaguely recalled and evoke a feeling of ‘familiarity’. This dual nature in which memories are stored has led experts to believe in the dual nature theory of memory. The theory itself posits that there are two types of memory, implicit and explicit. Going by the literal definitions themselves, explicit memory can be closely related to the sense of ‘recollection’. Implicit memory is more the ‘familiarity’ felt when exposed to certain events, people, places etc.
If one were to give actual examples, explicit memory would be the name of a friend one has remembered. This name has been committed to memory because there is a need for this name to be remembered in the future. The brain makes the decision to remember this name ‘explicitly’ and thus its recall is easy later on. Implicit memory though is a different case. In more common terms it could be associated to a feeling of déjà vu, ie one has experienced something and feels that they are experiencing it again. For whatever the reason, the brain does not register that particular event or person in a manner that allows for easy recollection later on. If this individual is chanced upon later, he/ she will look familiar though one may not be able to place them. This is a common enough event that occurs nearly every day to almost everyone. It is not a sign of failing memory but more a function of the brain and its way of sifting through the information it comes across.
The duality of memory is a widely held belief. Cognitive psychology has investigated extensively into this ‘duality’; particularly so were the efforts of Larry Jacoby, who carried out considerable research to firstly add further weight to this theory and secondly to enhance our understanding. His work predominantly focused around ‘implicit’ memory and his findings were telling. As was brought up before, ‘implicit’ memory in its simplest term means ‘familiarity’, Jacoby’s study sought to seek the nature of this familiarity. If one were to go by definition alone, ‘familiarity’ or a sense of it would mean that when exposed to or experiencing stimuli again, one would have greater ease in recognizing it because they had experienced it before. This would be the proverbial ‘connecting the dots’. This would allow processing to flow. His major observation in this regard proved the above and showed that prior exposure to stimuli would as he said create a ‘fluency of processing’. By this he meant that an individual’s processing would react more speedily as it had had prior exposure and thus would readily be able to understand or remember the situation at hand. He went on to further sub classify this type of memory. The two processes that he identified within implicit memory were known as familial recognition and recollective recognition. In the first case the persons ‘memory’ allowed the individual a sense of having felt similarly before. The exact nature or description of this feeling could not be described, but the feeling remained. In the second case the ‘memory’ allowed the individual to ‘consciously reconstruct’ and ‘mentally re-experience’ events.
Subliminal marketing aims at targeting the implicit memory that we have within our minds. Its purpose is to push the right buttons in our subconscious so that it may lead to a purchase decision and eventually lead to greater sales without us even being aware of the fact that our minds have been artificially convinced into buying a certain product.
The writer is a business administration professional and has done extensive research on subliminal marketing. He can be contacted at rizvi_b@hotmail.com
Implicit and explicit memory
