How our unconscious memory keeps us functioning efficiently in our daily lives

By Ben Sclodnick, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology, McMaster University

Have you ever been on a long drive and suddenly realized that you barely remember the past several minutes of driving?

Although the thought of driving without paying conscious attention to the road may be unsettling, we actually carry out complex behaviours without much thought all the time — and it’s all thanks to our memory.

In its simplest form, memory does one basic job: it forms associations between things that occur together. Just as we learn to associate a name with a face, or a scent with…

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