Types of Long Term Memory Flashcards
Who first proposed that the MSM’s view of long term memory was two simplistic?
Endel Tulving (1985) - proposed that there was actually 3 different long term memory stores that contained different information
Two types of long term memory
Declarative memory and Procedural memory
Two types of declarative memory
Episodic memory and Semantic memory
What is the episodic memory?
-Holds our ability to recall events from our lives
-All personal experiences are recorded together in complex memories
-They are time stamped
-Your memories of a single events/episode will include several elements (people, places, objects, behaviour)
-You make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories, in a quick process but you are aware you are searching your memories (conscious retrieve with effort)
What is semantic memory?
This stores general knowledge of the world, e.g. stores knowledge of what chocolate tastes lime
They are not time stamped, is less personal and is more factual
Contains an immense collection of information that is always being added to (recalled deliberately)
-Tulving –> claimed it is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory
What is procedural memory?
Memory for actions and skills
Recall without conscious awareness or much effort
We find these skill hard to explain to others
Clinical evidence to support different types of long term memory
Clive Wearing
Clive Wearing
Demonstrates existence of different types of long term memory
Could remember the meaning of words and his intelligence remained, showing that despite the damage to episodic memory, his semantic memory was intact.
Semantic memory could not be developed or added to as he could not learn new things, but his memory remained from before
Remember how to perform basic functions and could read and play music as well as before, showing his procedural memory was not damaged
Clive Wearing improves the reliability of the different types of long term memory
Counterpoint to the case of Clive Wearing
-Lack control variables
-Brain injuries are unexpected so researcher has no control over before or during the accident/illness. No knowledge of previous state of memory
Can not accurately judge change to memory
Limitation to different types of long term memory
Conflicting research as to the location of semantic and episodic memory
Randy Buckner and Steven Peterson (1996) concluded that the semantic memory was on the left side of the prefrontal cortex and the episodic memory was on the right
However, other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding to episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episodic retrieval. (Tulving et al 1994)
Strength to the different types of long term memory
Real-world application:
-Understanding can help with memory problems
-People lose their memory as they age, and research has shown that it is usually recent episodic memories that become hard to recall and more distant memories were easier
-Sylvie Belleville et al (2006) - devised method to improve episodic memory in older people. ‘Trained’ them and after, their episodic memory were better than a control group
