The five long-term memory systems and their assumed brain bases. Procedural memory is largely motor based but includes also sensory and cognitive skills (“routines”). Priming refers to a higher likeliness of reidentifying previously perceived stimuli. Perceptual memory allows distinguishing an object, item, or person on the basis of distinct features. Semantic memory is context-free and refers to general facts; it encompasses general knowledge of the world. The episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) system is context specific with respect to time and place. It allows mental time travel. Examples are events such as the last vacation or the dinner of the previous night. The terms “remember” and “know” describe the distinction between EAM and semantic memory, as remembering requires conscious recollection embedded in time and space and with an emotional flavoring, while knowing represents a simple, though conscious, yes/no distinction without further connotations. Tulving [67, 68] assumes that during ontogeny (as well as during phylogeny) memory development starts with procedural memory and ends with episodic autobiographical memory, a system that he reserves for human beings, while all other systems can be found in animal species as well.
