We need to study memory to understand KM
…there are two broad types of memory. Knowledge of an address, telephone number, and the capital of India are examples of what is known as declarative or explicit memory. As the name implies, declarative memories are accessible to conscious recollection and verbal description: if someone does not know the capital of India we can tell him that it is New Delhi.
By contrast, attempts to tell someone how to ride a bike, recognize a face, or juggle flaming torches is not unlike trying to explain calculus to a cat. Riding a bike, recognizing faces, and juggling are examples of nondeclarative or implicit memories.
You may have trouble answering the question, What key is to the left of the letter E on your computer keyboard? Assuming you know how to type your brain knows very well which keys are beside each other, but it may not be inclined to tell you. But if you mimic the movements while you pretend to type wobble, you can probably figure it out. The layout of the keyboard is stored in nondeclarative memory, unless you have explicitly memorized the arrangement of the keys, in which case it is also stored in declarative memory
The brain is very good at pattern recognition. The fact that we currently use numbers in order to quantify anything from baseball scores or our salaries — there [weren’t] many situations in which that was required. People weren’t negotiating, they weren’t making transactions. They were judging whether something [was] that dangerous or not — there wasn’t a need or the ability to manipulate symbols. So in the case of numerical calculations, there [weren’t] that many circumstances in which animals will benefit from manipulating numbers — from doing long division and so forth.
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(Source: NPR)
