Automatic memory is exemplified by which type of memory?

• A. Facts you studied
• B. What you see driving or walking to class
• C. Math formulas
• D. Names of classmates

Answer: (B)

Automatic memory refers to the kind of memory that underpins skills and routines you perform without thinking. Once you practice driving or walking enough, those actions become automatic—your brain handles the steps while you focus on other things, and you can do them with little conscious effort. This is implicit or procedural memory.

In contrast, remembering facts you studied, math formulas, or the names of classmates relies on explicit memory—the conscious recall of information you can verbalize. Those require effort, rehearsal, and retrieval from semantic or episodic memory, not automatic skill. So the example of an automatic memory is the routine task of driving or walking to class, not the explicit recall of studied facts, formulas, or people.