long term memory - evaluation Flashcards
1
Q
clive wearing
wife
A
- amnesia
- He lost the ability to code new memories and forgets everything within 30 seconds
- lost his episodic memory, he still has semantic memory
- wife enters the room, he greets her joyously → although he has no episodic memories of Deborah, he has semantic knowledge of her - he remembers that he loves her
- has his procedural = play the piano
2
Q
HM (dog) anf clive (piano)
supports the seperation of LTM
A
- HM and Clive wearing both sufferers of amnesia
- HM displayed normal functioning in his semantic memory = understood concept of dog
- impaired functioning in their episodic memory = couldnt remember owning a dog
- clive could play the piano but couldnt remember learning it = impaired episodic memory but functioning procedural memory
- supports the ides of separation of LTM
3
Q
Brain scan studies show that there are physical different stores
A
- Tulving et al (1994) had Ps perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned with a PET scanner
- Episodic and semantic memories were in the prefrontal cortex → semantic in left side and episodic in right prefrontal cortex
- This shows a physical reality in the brain to the different types of LTM
4
Q
Identifying different LTM stores have real-life applications
- Belleville et al (2006)
A
- episodic memories can be improved in older people with mild cognitive impairments → cognitive training led to improvements (compared to a control group)
- This allows specific treatments to be developed
5
Q
There are problems with clinical evidence
A
- Evidence is often based on clinical cases about what happens when memory is damaged e.g. HM and Clive Wearing
- These lack control variables e.g. cannot control the precise location of the brain damage
- This means it is difficult to generalise from these case studies
6
Q
nomothetic and idiographic
A
- it attempts to generate universal laws of cognitive processes including our different types of long‐term memories
(episodic, semantic and procedural), but also uses case studies, such as in the case of Patient HM and Clive Wearing.
