TOP Summary Behavioral flexibility and adaptability are dependent upon the organism's ability to both store and retrieve information and to modify the memory stores. Memories are, thus, not fixed or unchanging entities. Rather they represent enhanced patterns of neuronal interconnections which are subject to continual change. Procedural memory represents motor or skill learning which is memory without verbal mediation and thus without record. Such memories are slow to acquire but more resistant to change or loss.
Declarative memory is memory for facts.
It is fast changing, quick to acquire but quick to be lost. Much of the loss is by design. Considerable information activates the receptors but is not retained. We attend to meaningful or relevant stimuli and ignore unchanging or uninformative information. Important information enters short-term memory stores and may be enhanced by rehearsal.