Training the 21st-Century Worker: Policy Advice from the Dark Network of Implicit Memory. IBE Working Papers on Curriculum Issues No. 16

Research on memory functions and their applications is a vast field that has unfolded for decades; some important studies are sixty years old. However, the research has remained a well-kept secret of cognitive psychologists. Education faculties rarely teach memory specifics, so people working in education typically do not know about the above distinction. This document attempts to publicize essential research on the relationship between memory functions and skills development and to illustrate its educational and policy implications. Understanding memory functions is also important because the distinction between explicit and implicit memory seems to be responsible for significant and systematic memory biases that affect how people think about education. This document therefore also presents the problems and solution attempts made by donor agencies as well as research on cognitive biases of people. It then proceeds to illustrate essential memory functions that have applicability in education. The review includes "non-cognitive" skills, personality variables, complex skills, and gender and status issues. It also briefly covers the problems of lower-income vocational institutions and links them to cognitive research. It concludes with policy implications and prospects for future research. Examples of learning-related assumptions reported in various documents are appended. A bibliography is also included.