Implicit memory is retention that does not require conscious recollection. It is demonstrated by performance rather than by deliberate recall.

Skills such as riding a bicycle, typing, and playing a musical instrument are supported by implicit (procedural) memory. So are the effects of priming—faster or more accurate processing of a stimulus because of prior exposure, even when the person does not remember the exposure. Classical conditioning can also produce implicit memory: a conditioned emotional response may occur without awareness of the original pairing.

Implicit memory is largely preserved in patients with amnesia who have lost the ability to form new explicit memories. H.M. could learn new motor skills and show priming effects while remaining unable to recall the training sessions themselves. The dissociation indicates that different neural systems support the two forms of memory. Implicit memory is less dependent on the hippocampus and more dependent on structures such as the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and neocortex.

You demonstrate implicit memory every time you perform a skilled action without consciously retrieving the steps.