Long Term Memory - Tulving

Question 1

Long Term Memories

Answer 1

The LTM component is a lot more complex which is why we may be better at remembering some things like places, but not faces.

Question 1

What are the 3 types of Long Term Memories?

Answer 1

1) Episodic
2) Semantic
3) Procedural

Question 2

LTM can be further divided into:

Answer 2

1) Declarative memories - explicit memories that can be inspected and recalled consciously
2) Procedural memories - implicit memories that we are typically unable to recall

Declarative refers to episodic and semantic memories

Question 3

Episodic Memories

Answer 3

• The ability to remember events or episodes in our life
• Why are they complex?
  1) They are time-stamped
  2) They involve a conscious effort to recover
  3) 1 single event includes several elements, eg, place, time, season, etc, all interwoven together
• Explicit memories
• Coordinated in the hippocampus
• Episodic memories can be split further into:
  1) Autobiographical episodic memory - memories of specific events of one’s life
  2) Flashbulb memory - detailed autobiographical episodic memories that are permanently stored in the LTM when they are first learnt as they are of emotional/historical significance in that person’s life
  3) Experimental episodic memory - where learning a fact has been associated with a memory of the specific life event when it was learnt

Question 4

Semantic Memories

Answer 4

• Our knowledge of the world
• Characteristics of the SM:
  1) Not time stamped
  2) Complex as it includes more than just factual information that is constantly added to
• Coordinated in the temporal lobe

Question 5

Procedural Memories

Answer 5

• Our memory of motor actions, skills and/or muscle memory
• Characteristics of PM:
  1) Don’t require conscious effort
  2) Hard to describe or explain to someone else
• Coordinated in cerebellum and motor cortex

Question 6

Strength

Answer 6

point: there is clinical evidence for the existence of different types of long term memories.

evidence: an example of this is the cases of Clive Wearing and HM who both suffered amnesia. Their episodic memory was severely impaired as they could not recall events from their past. However, their semantic memory was relatively intact - HM could not remember stroking a dog half an hour earlier but could remember having a dog in the past (he knew what a dog was) and their procedural memory was intact which was demonstrated in their ability to tie their shoelaces. Clive could even continue to play the piano.

justification: this suggests that there are different types of long term memories - episodic, semantic and procedural - and that they exist as separate components.

implication: as a result, this increases the validity of the idea of distinct types of long term memories existing.

Question 7

Strength

Answer 7

point: there is evidence supporting the idea of different types of long term memories from modern cognitive neuroscience.

evidence: brain scanning techniques such as fMRI scans have shown that episodic memories are associated with the hippocampus, semantic memories are associated with the temporal lobe and that procedural memories are associated with the cerebellum and motor cortex.

justification: this provides clinical and empirical evidence as it establishes the existence of different long term memories in regards to the respective brain regions in which they are coordinated.

implication: as a result, this increases the reliability of this idea as evidence provided is objective and factual.

Question 8

Weakness

Answer 8

point: there is evidence supporting the idea of different types of long term memories from modern cognitive neuroscience.

evidence: brain scanning techniques such as fMRI scans have shown that episodic memories are associated with the hippocampus, semantic memories are associated with the temporal lobe and that procedural memories are associated with the cerebellum and motor cortex.

justification: this provides clinical and empirical evidence as it establishes the existence of different long term memories in regards to the respective brain regions in which they are coordinated.

implication: as a result, this increases the reliability of this idea as evidence provided is objective and factual.

counter-argument: however, there is conflicting neuroimaging evidence.

evidence: Buckner and Petersen found that semantic memory is located on the left of the prefrontal cortex, whereas the episodic is on the right. Other studies have found the memory stores located the other way around.

justification: this demonstrates that although there are distinct long term memories, the exact location of where they are coordinated in the brain is unknown due to contrasting evidence.

implication: this inconsistent neuroimaging evidence is therefore an issue as it doesn’t enable us to understand the different types of long term memories more comprehensively, hence this is a weakness of the different types of long term memories.

Question 9

Weakness

Answer 9

point: a limitation of research into the different types of long term memories is that it heavily relies on case studies.

evidence: an example is the case of Clive Wearing and HM who both suffered from amnesia. The use of ideographic research in this way allows researchers to study memory in a way that would not be possible experimentally. However, there are problems generalising the findings of these clinical case studies with one or few individuals to the wider population. There could be other undisclosed aspects of long term memory that weren’t taken into consideration before theorising about what it comprised because research concerning it was heavily built on case studies.

justification: this suggests that information from these case studies are simply not applicable to a wider population as it is unrepresentative.

implication: therefore, this is a weakness of the different types of long term memory.