Semantic memory

Semantic memory refers to general world knowledge that humans have accumulated throughout their lives.^[1] This general knowledge (word meanings, concepts, facts, and ideas) is intertwined in experience and dependent on culture. New concepts are learned by applying knowledge learned from things in the past.^[2]

Semantic memory is distinct from episodic memory—the memory of experiences and specific events that occur in one's life that can be recreated at any given point.^[3] For instance, semantic memory might contain information about what a cat is, whereas episodic memory might contain a specific memory of stroking a particular cat.

Semantic memory and episodic memory are both types of explicit memory (or declarative memory), or memory of facts or events that can be consciously recalled and "declared".^[4] The counterpart to declarative or explicit memory is implicit memory (also known as nondeclarative memory).^[5]