Psychology

Ageing is a slow process of cognition that is responsible for changes in almost every aspect of human life and behavior. The changes are originated biologically resulting in destabilization of some of the human biological process. Ageing tends to make changes in human memory. This paper aims to describe the systems of memory mainly declarative and non-declarative memory systems. There are some of the most widely researched and acclaimed type of non-declarative memory that has been discussed with age related changes that elaborate ageing and types of non-declarative memory.

The processes of human lives are all engaged in consecutive and systematic behavior which is solely controlled by the brain and in particular memory that is associated with the responses of stimuli. Among different and vibrant systems of memory, there are two major categories of the system of memories namely declarative memory and non-declarative memory. In particular, Non-declarative memory is not dependent upon recollection of the past experiences and thus the process of ageing disturbs the system of non-declarative memory system of brain less than other system of memories. In this paper we shall briefly describe non-declarative memory and its types. The paper also deals with the age related changes that occur in different types of non-declarative memory.  

Definition of Non-Declarative Memory
Non-declarative memory is known as a state in which one would have an implicit knowledge. In other words, non declarative memory is also considered to be a heterogeneous collection of unconscious knowledge. The use of implicit knowledge in the sentence is due to the fact that the non-declarative memory is associated with the term implicit knowledge as people use implicit knowledge with unconscious thought. One of the helpful examples could be motor memories. While driving a car, the driver would be implying motor memories or implicit knowledge in his unconscious status. There is a clear and constant use of implicit knowledge throughout the driving session without consciousness of knowing the skills (Rybash, 2000).

In psychology, the term non-declarative memory is used interchangeably with implicit memory or procedural memory. In many cases, non-declarative memory is measured with the help of individuals behavior. One evident fact about non-declarative memory is that, it is that type of memory that is not dependent on the brain regions which are essential components of declarative memory. On in other words declarative memory is completely dependent on factual interpretations where as non-declarative memory is dependent upon the regularity of a person based on skills and habits (Yeates  Enrile, 2005).

A broader study area of non-declarative memory is that it does not depend on the basis of awareness or memory recollection. Memory recollection is another name given to the process of reminding self about past activities. Non-declarative memory is a part of memory that is distinct in terms of dependency over reminders and recollected memory (Calabrese  Neugebauer, 2002).

Types of Non-Declarative Memory
Types of non-declarative memory are the most widely researched topic by many of the psychologists. Different memory experts have coined the types of non-declarative memory in different terms. Among different well-states types of non-declarative memory, the most widely acclaimed and practiced types of non-declarative memory are as follows

Skills and habits
Skills and habits refer to that memory of an individual that tends to help him in practicing the process which is done over and over in a day to day routine. In the psychological terms it could be motor skills, cutting the food in a vibrant ways. This type of non-declarative memory is practiced on daily basis and is essentially considered to be permanently acquired without awareness. Skills and habits are easily adapted by the people on the basis of a response to the stimuli of environmental characteristics without even being asked to do it (Gupta  Cohen, 2002).  

Priming
Priming is that type of non-declarative memory that reflects the ability of an individual to be able to perform a task after a single exposure or practice of the task. For example an individual is shown a half sketched image of a person and then he is asked to identify the person sketched the sketch is further completed and shown to the individual until the person in the sketch is recognized. Next time when the individual will be exposed to the sketch at earlier stage, he would be able to identify the person in first attempt. The example given demonstrates priming in a broader way (Misra  Holcomb, 2005).

Simple Classical conditioning
Simple classical conditioning is a further form of non-associative learning. Simple classical conditioning or in other words Pavlovian conditioning is that condition of non-declarative memory that helps the individuals in processing the information without any repetition. Simple classical conditioning tends to encourage the stamina of an individual to practice a process without repeating the process within unconscious state to practice. It is that kind of non-declarative memory that is presided with the help of number of means. The means are subjected to the components of the brain that are used in a more. This type of memory tends to produce responses in terms of single stimulus-acted patterns (Goosens  Maren, 2002).

Procedural Memory
Procedural memory, as evident from its subject, is regarded to be a memorys task within procedures that are practiced by individuals. There could be a number of examples that could be taken from the average processes that individuals conduct in daily routine. For example cutting vegetables for cooking is an example of procedural memory. In a simpler context, procedural memory could be understood as habits and day to day routine abilities of people that are practiced without being conscious about it or providing attention to what is being done (Bolle, Cermak,  Grafman, 2000).

Ageing
Ageing is defined as a slower rate of cognitive processing and changes that occur in species overtime. Ageing takes place in animals as well as humans. In particular, human ageing is refers to the changes in physical, psychological and social aspects. The most common identification of ageing process is slower actions where as knowledge and wisdom expands. The continuous expand in the process of ageing pushes an individual towards the memory loss. Some of the memory experts believe and argue that ageing process has nothing to do with the memory loss but in many cases memory loss takes place. Loss of memory is basically loss of motivation to keep a continuous track of usual active routines (Rybash, 2000).

Types of Non-Declarative Memory and Ageing
The studies of the non-declarative memory observe dependency of implicit of procedural memory upon the degrees of differences in ages. The more the age lingers on older stance, the more the non-declarative memory tends to get broader in terms of implicit knowledge and its implication in unconscious state. According to a research, the age differences and the aging process in particular make evident change on the declarative memory more than non-declarative memory. Thus, on the basis of many researches and on the general characteristics of the non-declarative memory, it could be said that ageing takes place and produce changes in an individual in terms of explicit knowledge rather than implicit knowledge (Stefan, Spyridon,  Jim, 2009).

It is observed in the case of ageing that the cognitive processing of an individual decreases and thus in respective case, the individual forgets about the past experiences and memory status quo. The loss of memory loss is considered in only that case in which the ageing process takes the individual on a level where he forgets basic factual e.g. forgetting names, age, birthdays and addresses of peers. Forgetting the basic factual signify the characteristics of declarative system of memory (Bolle, Cermak,  Grafman, 2000).

The age related changes with the types of non-declarative memory could be identified to less than declarative memory. Skills and habits are regarded as the first type of non-declarative memory and are less associated with age related changes. For instance, even in the case of implying that an individual loses his memory due to injury such as in the case Amnesia, the types of non-declarative memories are spared. With the research of declarative and non-declarative memory, there is always another topic that is researched along with the types of memories and that is Amnesia. The individuals in the case of Amnesia forget their identity and people who may have had great importance in the lives or sustained live long processes with the Amnesiac individuals. But the ability to eat, talk, listen, think, cut food are all the abilities, skills and habits of an individual which are not forgotten even in the case of Amnesia (Goosens  Maren, 2002).

Similarly, Priming is the second type of non-declarative memory that tends to keep an individual aware in terms of ageing. The example discussed above for the elaboration of priming category of non-declarative memory is the identification of sketch. If the example is used as an experiment for the analysis of age related changes associated with the type of non-declarative memory, then it could be observed that ageing individual would still manage to identify the person sketched.

Non-associative learning or in other words procedural memory imply the same characteristics of non-declarative memory and solely free from the memory destabilization due to ageing as an individual keeps on learning and adapting changes from the environment as actions. Simple conditioning does not require essential systematic steps to learn or grasp understanding of processes, unlike declarative memory in which a person memorizes particular key terms and steps e.g. salsa dance genre (Bolle, Cermak,  Grafman, 2000).

The last type of non-declarative memory is procedural memory that tends to keep an individual functioning even in the older ages or conditions of Amnesia or loss of impaired memory. In above, we have studied that non-declarative memory is not vastly dependent upon the recollection of memory. Thus on the basis of the nature of both the phenomenon of aging and non-declarative memory, it could be said that ageing has minor implications on the non declarative memory of an individual. The sparing characteristics of non-declarative memory keep this major category of memory system to be available for the individuals in all the phases of life (Misra  Holcomb, 2005).

Concluding Remarks
Human processes completely undergo on the basis of different categories of memory systems. The widely known and major types of memory have been discussed with a distinction in above. Non-declarative memory, in particular is a type of memory that is spared in the cases of injuries and is more dependent on adapted and acquired characteristics of environment without much control and attention given to the task. Non-declarative memory does not depend on the recollection of facts and past experiences thus ageing does not demoralize non-declarative memory as ageing is the slow down in cognition through changes occurring in different aspects of life.