Procedural Memory and Know-How

What is the relation between procedural memory and know-how? After critically introducing the distinction between procedural and declarative memory and reviewing the main arguments for positing such a distinction, I discuss some novel considerations that stand in the way of an operationalization of know-how in terms of procedural memory. While procedural memory captures some important aspects of know-how, I argue that it lacks three distinctive features of know-how: the distinctive control and flexibility of the behavior that know-how elicits, as well as know-how’s distinctive adaptivity. I end up suggesting that mere habits, rather than know-how, are best thought of as operationalized by procedural memory.