memory-long term memory Flashcards
what is episodic memory
-ability to recall real life events and personal experiences
-its an autobiographical memory where we remember the details the context and emotions related to the events
(know when are where you learn the information)
what type of memories are episodic
declarative and explicit
where is episodic memories located
hippocampus and temporal lobe region
what is semantic memory
this is our factual memory about meaningful information
(don’t need to know when and where you learnt the information)
what type of memories are semantic
explicit and declarative
where are semantic memories located
temporal lobe region
what are procedural memories
memories concerned with skills and how to do things
its a muscle based memory which improves with practice and repetition and is resistant to forgetting
automatic
what type of memories are procedural
non-declarative
implicit
where are procedural memories located
cerbellum, basal ganglia and limbic system
who found differences in the processing of episodic and semantic task
tulving
what did tulving do
-6 volunteers were injected with a small amount of radioactive gold
-each participants performed 8 successive trials lasting 80s involving 4 semantic and 4 episodic topics in a randomised order
-trials were separated by 2 mins of rest
-retrievals involved silent mental thought
-at a signal from the researcher the participants would begin to think about the topic
-3 participants produced inconclusive data
-in the other 3 they found that their was greater activations in the anterior regions of the cortex when thinking about episodic memories
-and greater activation in the posterior regions when thinking retrieving semantic information
what did tulvings research suggest
episodic and semantic LTM appear to involve different areas of the brain thus are separate
critisms of tulvings research
-lacks population validity as there were only 3 participants they had conclusive data from
-there brains may be unique therefore you cannot generalise to the wider population
-the scanner provides objective scientific research
what did herlitz find
he assessed explicit LTM in 1000 Swedish participants finding that females consistently performed better than males on tasks requiring episodic LTM
there were no differences in semantic LTM abilities
what does herlitz research suggest
there are gender differences
what are criticisms of herlitz research
all Swedish- Eurocentric so lacks population validity
what types of memories does Clive wearing have
he has procedural memories as he can play the piano but cant make new episodic memories
suggests there are sub-stores of LTM
what did spiers et al find out about LTM
he interviewed 147 cases of amnesia and found that every one of them had poor declarative knowledge but none of them had a problem with procedural knowledge
-add credibility to the fact there are seperate stores and they are unique in there features
what did milner find out about HM
milner found out that HM could trace a shape using its mirror image however he had no conscious recollection of ever having done mirror images
this shows that he had procedural memories to learn the skill but had no declarative memories to consciously recollect his experience
what are the problems with case studies
-cant replicate it as so you cant test for reliability
-they are individual so have a low population validity
