Lesson 7: Forgetting Flashcards
Episodic memory
Memory for events - recollection of your first day of school, a family holiday, your last birthday etc. Episodic memories have three elements, specific details of the event, the context of the event and the emotions you were feeling at the time of the event. Stored in the hippocampus
Semantic memory
This is the memory for facts and general knowledge about the world e.g. capital of London. Semantic memories may also relate to things such as the functions of an object, what behaviour is appropriate in situations and abstract concepts like maths and language. Semantic memories begin as episodic memories as we gain knowledge from personal experiences. Gradual transition of episodic to semantic when memory loses its association to particular events and is generalised. Semantic memories are stored in the temporal lobe.
Procedural memory
Known as muscle memory, concerned with motor skills and actions, such as knowing how to tie your shoelaces, knowing how to drive or how to read. Procedural memories are typically acquired through repetition and practise and become more resistant to forgetting or amnesia than other types of LTM. They are automatic, we are less aware of them, difficult to verbally explain. If yiu think too much about procedural memories, it prevents you from carrying them out. Procedural memories have to be automatic so we can focus attention on other tasks. Stored in the cerebellum.
Evaluation- amnesia patients (+)
Distncution between episodic/semantic and procedural has come from research on patients with amnesia. They have problems with storing episodic or semantic memories but their procedural memory is largely unaffected.
Evaluation- brain scans (+)
Scienftific evidence from brain scans shows different types of LTM. When participants recall different tupes of info, different parts of the brain are shown to be active on the fMRI. Episodic- hippocampus, Semantic- Temporal lobe, Procedural- cerebellum
Evaluation- Clive Wearing (+)
Case studies supporting, Clive wearing is a man who suffered from a viral infection which damaged his hippocampus, he has no episodic memory and cannot form new semantic memories. Howveee his procedural memories are still intact, can still paky tge piano
Evaluation- Clive wearing (-)
Research into diff types of LTM have been conducted on Clive Wearing, highly detailed and provided a lot of info of isolated cases of one individual, it would be inappropriate to assume everyone’s LTM is formed in the same way. Findings cannot be generalised.
