Basic Features of Taxon Memory

1. Information in taxon memories is placed through practice and rehearsal. One example is the way some people recall the steps in starting a computer without actually understanding what is happening inside the box.

2. Taxon learning is linked to extrinsic motivation and is powerfully motivated by external reward and    punishment. The behavioral approach to learning and, in fact, all rewards such as grades or privileges, tend to evoke and support learning via these memory systems.This is evident when students memorize for tests instead of seeking understanding.

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5. Much of what we store in taxon systems is not initially meaningful. What matters to us is that information can be recalled, or the skills used, on demand, irrespective of meaning. Such learning forms the basis of operant and classical conditioning and has greatly influenced our schools.

Information housed in taxon systems differs substantially from our memory for locations and interconnected events.

Basic Features of Locale Memory

1. Every human being has a spatial memory system (creating spatial maps). It is survival oriented, and its capacity is virtually unlimited.

2. Locale memories are never limited to static, context-free facts. They are memories that exist in relationship to where we are in space, as well as what we are doing. Thus they are records of ongoing life events, whether a trip through the Alps or the two hours  we spent last night reading a good mystery. There is always a complex set of relationships among all these items.

3. Initial maps tend to form very quickly.......

4. We update our maps on a continuous basis. Our spatial memory system is instantaneously and constantly monitoring and comparing our present surroundings with past similar surroundings. It is always moderately open ended and flexible.....

5. Map formation is motivated by novelty, curiosity, and expectation....We are seeking to make sense of what is happening in our world.

6. Locale or spatial memory is enhanced through sensory acuity, or enhanced awareness of smell, taste, touch, sound, and so on.....Many ancient cultures, such as those of the Native Americans, have highly developed sensory acuity; but most of us can improve with practice.

7. Although maps for specific places are relatively instant, some large, intricate maps may take a long time to be formed. They are consequences of many experiences that only gradually come together.