ABSTRACT
The recent surge of interest in implicit memory has spawned an impressive variety of new empirical discoveries concerning the nature of normal and abnormal memory processes (Richardson-Klavehn & Bjork, 1988; Schacter, 1987). Yet as the editors of this volume rightly point out, somewhat less attention has been paid to conceptual and theoretical issues associated with the phenomena of interest. In this chapter, we address a number of conceptual problems concerning implicit memory that we believe need to be, but have not yet been, confronted and discussed directly.
This chapter focuses on the nature or and relations between two cnncal aspects of implicit memory: unintentional vs. intentional retrieval processes, and awareness vs. unawareness of remembering during implicit test performance. We begin by discussing these phenomena with respect to definitions of implicit memory. We then consider them in regard to the related problem of developing suitable criteria for distinguishing implicit from explicit memory processes, and put forward a retrieval intentionality criterion for making such a distinction in teims of intentional vs. unintentional retrieval processes. Finally, we consider a series of experiments that explore the issue of awareness vs. unawareness of remembering during test performance.
