John,
 
Sorry about that last message but I couldn't resist. Actually...
 
Broadly, memory phenomena have been categorized as explicit or implicit. Thus, explicit
memories for experience involve the hippocampus-medial temporal lobe system and implicit
basic associative learning and memory involves the cerebellum, amygdala, and other stems.
Under normal conditions, however, many of these brain-memory systems are engaged to some
degree in learning situations. But each of these brain systems is learning something
different about the situation. The cerebellum is necessary for classical conditioning of
discrete behavioral responses (eyeblink, limb flexion) under all conditions; however, in
the "trace" procedure where a period of no stimuli intervenes between the conditioned
stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus the hippocampus plays a critical role. Analysis
of the role of the cerebellum in basic delay conditioning (stimuli overlap) indicates
that the memories are formed and stored in the folds of the cerebellum. There is a finite
amount of data which can be stored in the brain, but that limit has yet to be attained by
any human. It has been proposed that continually using the same pathways in the cortex
reinforces some memory while effectively 'erasing' other memory like re-recording over
the same tape again and again.  The ability to remember shell names or any other large
volume of information is greatly increased by organizing and linking memory.  Why else
would we set up systems such as taxonomy?
 
 
K.
 
John Wolff wrote:
>
> There exist totally different ways of learning and knowing among people.
> Some of us can visualize things -- I cannot. We all have different talents
> to different degrees; it may also have to do with single-mindedness.
>
> Some of my greatly admired sheller-friends have nearly photographic
> memories.  I  have a very poor visual memory (a major handicap for a
> sheller); I am better at recognizing the (Latin) name  than anything else;
> Gary Rosenberg can do both...
>
> And then, there is an effect from aging (not beneficial!). After a while,
> there remain only two kinds of shells: those whose name I've never heard or
> seen, and those whose name or appearance I can't recall  :-)))
>
> John Wolff
> 2640 Breezewood Dr.
> Lancaster, PA 17601, U.S.A
> 717- 569-6955 (voice)
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