Types Of Long Term Memory

Question 1

Outline Procedural Memory

Answer 1

There are three different LTM stores. One LTM store is procedural memory which is responsible for knowing how to do things, for example the memory of motor skills such as riding a bike. Procedural memories are non-declarative as they dont involve conscious recall. The areas of the brain that are responsible for procedural memories are the cerebellum and motor cortex.

Question 2

Outline Semantic Memory

Answer 2

Another LTM store is semantic memory. This is responsible for
storing knowledge about the world, for example, knowledge about the meaning of words such as ‘love’, as well as general knowledge such as facts that London is the capital of England. Semantic memories are declarative as they involve conscious recall and are not ‘time stamped’. The brain area responsible for semantic memories is the temporal lobe.

Question 3

Outline episodic memory

Answer 3

Finally, the episodic memory is responsible for storing information about events that we have experienced in our lives at a specific time, for example our first day of school. Episodic memories are declarative as they involue conscious recall and are ‘time-stamped’. The brain area responsible for episodic memories is the hippocampus.

Question 4

Discuss the types of long term memory (3 X AO3)

Answer 4

The research into the different types of LTM, can be praised as it uses scientific methods. Objective and empirical techniques such as brain scans are used to identify the different parts of the brain that become active when completing different types of LTM tasks, for example the cerebellum and motor cortex being active when carrying a procedural task. Therefore, it could be argued that this increases the overall internal validity of the research into types of long term memory, thus raising Psychology’s scientific status.

To further evaluate the different types of long term memory, it has real life evidence from a case study of Clive Wearing. He suffers from amnesia in which his episodic memory was damaged as he could not remember some events
from his past, for example his musical education. However, Clive’s procedural memory was still working as he can remember how to play the piano. This supports the idea that there are different types of LTM because if only certain parts of the LTM are damaged, this indicates that they are separate.

However, this research to support can be criticised as it has low population validity. This is because the research was a case study, using only Clive as a participant who suffers from an unusual illness involving damage to the brain. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise the findings of the different types of LTM to the wider population as their LTM may operate differently, thus limiting the support that the research provides for the different types of LTM.