AS MEMORY - TYPES OF LONG TERM MEMORY

Question 1

Which two types of LTM are explicit and which one is implicit?

Answer 1

• Episodic and semantic memories are explicit, meaning that they require conscious thought
• Procedural memories are implicit and so do not require conscious thought.

Question 2

Describe episodic memory

Answer 2

Episodic memories are of previous personal life events. They are time stamped (i.e. associated with a time), consist of many elements (i.e. ppl, place, objects, beh.s), and require conscious thought and effort to remember them (explicit)

Question 3

Describe semantic memory

Answer 3

Knowledge of the world around us including facts and meanings of words, etc. These are not time stamped, i.e. you don’t remember when you learned where the Eiffel Tower is. Also requires conscious thought to remember (explicit)

Question 4

Describe procedural memory

Answer 4

Memories of how to perform certain actions, e.g. how to ride a bike. This doesn’t require conscious thought or effort to remember, and explaining them can actually be very difficult (implicit)

Question 5

Evaluate the types of LTM

Answer 5

(+) Supported by case of Clive Wearing; lost his episodic memory but his procedural and semantic were unaffected => suggests diff types of LTM and that diff areas of the brain are responsible for the diff types
(-) Lack of control over extraneous variables in Clive Wearing case study; lowers validity
(+) Tulving (1994) used PET scans to show that episodic and semantic memories happen in diff parts of the brain
(-) Very little evidence as to what part of the brain is responsible for procedural memories

Question 6

Who came up with the idea for different types of LTM?

Answer 6

Tulving (1985) criticised the MSM, saying it was too simplistic, and that LTM was not just one store, but three.