Jessica, however, doesn’t just talk about training. She also brings in stress. Here, too, she is correct: where you will see the effect of the synaptic bonds most openly is under highly emotional conditions. There, habit memory-the same type of procedural memory that you use when you do something that you’re skilled at, like drive a car or perform an integral function of your job-will take over, and declarative memory-or that memory that functions when you memorize something or when you’re still learning a new skill-will recede into the background. Nothing like stress to distinguish real habit from what you wish were habit.