Procedural-memory is the human-made psychological category for the class of long-term memory that stores motor skills, habits, and automatic procedures. It is defined in opposition to declarative memory (facts and events), characterized by implicit, non-conscious retention that persists even when explicit recall is impaired. The category was introduced by Squire and colleagues in the 1980s to carve a functional distinction in cognitive architecture. Persistence mechanism: academic discipline, teaching, and the accumulated corpus of cognitive science literature. [formal: memoria proceduralis | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.16]
Accepted ontology entry
procedural-memory
Procedural-memory is the human-made psychological category for the class of long-term memory that stores motor skills, habits, and automatic procedures. It is defined in opposition to declarative memory (facts and events), characterized by…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made cognitive category distinguishing types of long-term memory. The distinction between procedural (skill/habit) and declarative (fact/event) memory was coined by psychologists to map functional differences in how humans retain and reproduce learned behaviors. Per Law 2a, the entry denotes the MAP — the conceptual framework — not the natural neural mechanism.
Names and aliases
- procedural-memoryen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84INSTANCE_OF →
procedural-memory is a specific psychological category within the general concept of memory. Law 9: specific→general. Procedural memory IS A KIND of memory (the category of memory for skills and habits).
Relations to this entry
- cmrqolgnk0a0nd1nljrespw75← INSTANCE_OF
Script knowledge is a specific type of procedural memory: it is the learned capacity to perform routines and sequences without conscious deliberation. The direction is correct (specific→general). The test: script knowledge IS A KIND OF procedural memory.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 18, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC
- Content hash
- f0cb70fc2aa7f353d17e14776446ed12a99eb7da3c683eeea4c3ed161d60d408