The Facilitation of Cognitive Procedures is not Dependent on Maintenance of Declarative Memory Elements

Previous research has demonstrated that the cognitive procedure of categorization can be facilitated with practice. That is, practice categorizing exemplars of a particular category results in faster and more accurate categorizing of new exemplars within processed categories compared to non-processed categories. Further, subsequent research using a directed-forgetting paradigm demonstrated that this facilitation of procedural memory can occur without the maintenance of declarative memory elements (i.e., category exemplars). The current research extends these findings by examining if procedural memory can be facilitated in the absence of declarative memory recall of processed category labels. Results demonstrate another replication of the facilitation of procedural memory as well as non-recalled category exemplars being categorized faster and more accurately than non-processed category exemplars. Interestingly, participants more quickly and accurately categorized non-recalled categories compared to recalled categories. The results suggest that the facilitation of exemplar comparisons is not dependent upon category label maintenance in declarative memory.