Wrong question: Is the hippocampus involved when the memory task depends on formation of new associations?

The discussion paper by Steinkrauss and Slotnick entitled "is implicit memory associated with hippocampus?" aims to salvage the memory-systems view by challenging evidence from fMRI studies showing hippocampal activity during implicit memory tasks. The premise of their argument, that memory systems divide on consciousness, is wrong. The hippocampus plays a key role in memory performance when the task requires the formation of new associations among existing memory elements. Forming associations is required for some, not all, implicit memory tasks, and some, not all explicit memory tasks. Likewise, the hippocampus is involved when the memory tasks requires building new associations, conscious or not. [Note Reder's response was a solicited commentary and submitted to Cognitive Neuroscience on time; however, the paper slipped through the publishing cracks and was never reviewed.]