Discuss research into types of long term memory

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

Tulving (1985) said that long term memory was made up of 3 types; episodic, semantic and procedural memory

Episodic memories are memories for past events or experiences that have happened to us and which we have to consciously remember e.g. first day of school. Usually associated with times and places we learnt them & can be easily forgotten

Semantic memories are memories for learnt facts and information, which we always have to consciously remember. Created by having learnt information or general knowledge e.g. Paris is capital of France . Don’t tend to recall time and place we learnt them & easily forgotten

Procedural memories are memories of how to perform skills and actions, which become unconscious over time e.g. how to ride a bike. Created by repeating an activity multiple times. Often find it difficult to explain to someone else because we recall them without conscious awareness and they are resistant to forgetting

Question 2

Strength 1

Answer 2

There is convincing research to support them

From studies of different parts of the brain

Tulving (1994) found that episodic and semantic memories were both associated with the prefrontal cortex; episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex and semantic were from the left

This suggests that different types of LTM are physically represented in different parts of the brain; therefore, they must be separate types

Question 3

Strength 2

Answer 3

Convincing research to support them from the case studies of HM and Clive Wearing

Both individuals struggled to recall events that had happened to them suggesting a problem with episodic memories, however, their semantic memories were unaffected

This supports the view that there are different memory stores in LTM as it’s possible to damage one store without affecting the other

However, due to the nature of case studies and the lack of control of variables e.g. exact location of brain damage or personality, it can be difficult to generalise and understand exactly how LTM works

Question 4

Strength 3

Answer 4

Explanations for separate types of LT memories is that they have led to practical applications

E.g. Belleville et al (2006) found that episodic memories could be improved in older people with mild cognitive impairment

They found that trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group

This highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between different types of LTM as it allows for specific treatments to be developed

Question 5

Limitation

Answer 5

There may only be two types of LTM

Cohen and Squire (1980) disagreed with Tulving’s approach

And argued that episodic and semantic memories were both stored together in one store which they called declarative memory (memory which can be consciously recalled)

but agreed that procedural memories are different and referred to them as non-declarative memories

This suggests that there are only 2 main types of LTM, not 3 and they are declarative and non-declarative memories