Declarative memory is also known as explicit memory. Declarative memory is a type of long term memory that can be recalled as facts of knowledge, usually in a verbatim manner. These types of memories can be consciously recalled.

The hippocampus is a structure within the brain that encodes memories. When this structure is damaged it can lead to an inability to form and retrieve memories. The amygdala is the brain structure responsible for fear. The occipital lobe is responsible for processing visual input. Wernicke's area is important for speech and language. The cerebellum is responsible for movement and coordination.

Implicit memory involves remembering how to complete tasks that do not require conscious effort. It is also sometimes called non-declarative memory. Remembering how to ride a bicycle or tie your shoes are examples of implicit memory. Explicit memory is memory for every day information. It is a conscious form of memory and requires effort. Semantic and episodic are forms of explicit memory. Semantic memory involves remembering specific facts, such as math formulas or the names of former presidents. Episodic memory refers to remembering past life events, such as your wedding day. Eidetic memory is also known as photographic memory and is a rare ability in some people to recall images and sounds after short exposure. 

Usually credited to Noam Chomsky, the theory of universal grammar suggests that all possible human languages share certain properties, such as the rules of grammar. For Chomsky, the development of language involves genetic endowment, external data, and principles not specific to the faculty of language (i.e. those properties of the brain that cause it to learn language).

Also called convolution of Broca, the Broca area region of the brain contains motor neurons involved in speech production. The Broca region was discovered by a French surgeon, named Paul Broca, in 1861. 

Broca's area is a region of the frontal lobe of the cortex, and is linked to the ability to produce speech. Damage to Broca's area can lead to Broca's aphasia, which is the inability to speak out loud.

In contrast, Wernicke's area is located in the temporal lobe of the cortex and is credited with processing and interpreting the speech of others. Damage to Wernicke's area could leave a patient unable to comprehend a spoken request. Remembering a phone number would require processing by the hippocampus, which is a component of the limbic system credited with memory storage. Blue-yellow color blindness arises when a genetic disorder leaves the individual unable to produce cones that detect light at short wavelengths (such as blue).

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also known as linguistic relativity) states that language shapes the way we see the world. The strong version of the theory states that language determines thought, whereas the weak version states that language merely influences some non-linguistic processes.

Noam Chomsky proposed that we all are born with a "language acquisition device" in our minds, which gives us universal principles of human language. We learn our language's own "settings" for human communication according to these universal principles. For instance, if all human language has temporal tenses, we learn how our particular language expresses tense. Although the behaviorists believe we only learn language through our environment, Chomsky pointed out that we learn language very quickly through processes that appear similar to the human species, regardless of environment.

Semantics and syntax are fields of linguistics that concern different aspects of language. Syntax is primarily concerned with the universal properties and idiosyncrasies of the structure of language. For example, syntax studies how we construct our language an speech, and how we form certain phrases and clauses. Semantics is concerned with deciphering meaning in language by looking at its logical structure, the meaning of words, or how it is represented cognitively.   

Displacement is a unique property of human language. The only possible exception is in the case of bees, which may have a method of communicating directions to a plant they found. Other than this, we are unique in our ability to discuss events or objects that are not immediately apparent such as places far away, the past, and the future. Some have even theorized this was where the need for language began.