Long term memory

Question 1

What are the 3 types of LTM?

Answer 1

Tulving outlined 3 types of LTM:
1. Procedural
2. Semantic
3. Episodic

Question 2

What is procedural memory?

Answer 2

• LTM for actions and skills.
• Memories do not require conscious effort to recall/ recalled unconsciously (e.g. driving).
• Might find it difficult to explain the skills performed.

Question 3

What is sematic memory?

Answer 3

• Holds info about the knowledge of the world.
• Usually not personal info + is more about facts/ material.
• Memories aren’t time stamped.
• Have to be recalled deliberately.

Question 4

What is episodic memory?

Answer 4

• Ability to recall events (episodes from our lives).
  1. Memories are time stamped.
  2. Memory of a single episode will contain several elements + all of them are interwoven to produce a single memory trace.
  3. Have to make a conscious effort to recall the memories.

Question 5

Case study to support types of LTM: Clive Wearing

Answer 5

• Episodic memory was severely damaged as a consequence of amnesia.
• He had difficulty recalling events that had happened to him in his lives.
• But his semantic memories were relatively unaffected (e.g. they still understood the meaning of words).
• Procedural memory was relatively unaffected- he was a professional musician and could still remember how to play the piano.
• This supports Tulving’s view of different memory stores in LTM.
• One store can be damaged and other parts unaffected.

Question 6

Problems with clinical evidence

Answer 6

Studying people with brain injuries can mean a serious lack of control.
- Due to them having experienced traumatic experiences we cannot be sure that the research is accurate.
- This also means that the findings of the memory studies cannot be generalised to the wider population, as case studies are only specific to one person.

Question 7

Real-life applications

Answer 7

• Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives.
• Episodic memory is the type of memory most often affected by mild cognitive impairment, which highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between types of LTM- it enables specific treatments to be developed.