Long-term Skills: Procedural

Memory

Can you describe how you tie your shoelace? You may struggle,

though you’d probably have no difficulty if you actually had a shoe

in your hand and had to get ready to go out. Why is it so difficult to

give a step-by-step breakdown for simple tasks that some people

do every day, like tying a shoelace, driving a car, or even writing

your name? My 3-year-old son, on the other hand, has no difficulty

in telling me how to do a simple task step-by-step. He’s learning

how to write his name, and he spends a lot of time on each step.

For example, when he’s writing the letter M, he says out loud, ‘Up

the hill, down the hill, up the hill and down the hill.’ I’m sure that

you wouldn’t spend as much time writing the letter M!

Procedural memory refers to the skills that you have that are auto-

matic – things that you no longer have to spend much time think-

ing about, like writing letters or tying a tie. Your brain remembers

what to do without actually keeping track of each step. That’s why

it’s often hard to list each step. The question is, how do you learn

a new thing so it becomes procedural memory and you no longer

have to think so hard about it? For example, you may be trying to

learn a new language or perfect a dish.

The following sections offer tips to transfer that new information

into a long-lasting memory.