types of long term memory

Question 1

what is this model a criticism of?

Answer 1

Tulving claimed that the multi-store model’s view of LTM as it was too simplistic and inflexible (reductionist)

Question 2

what did Tulving (1985) propose LTM was instead?

Answer 2

There are three LTM stores which each contain different types of information

Question 3

what are the three types of LTM?

Answer 3

episodic
semantic
procedural

Question 4

what is procedural memory?

Answer 4

responsible for knowing how to do things like memories for motor motor skills and actions

Question 5

what are some examples of procedural memories?

Answer 5

• knowing how to ride a bike
• knowing how to swim
• knowing how to play an instrument
• knowing how to walk

Question 6

what are the features of procedural memories?

Answer 6

they are non declarative meaning they can be more difficult to verbally describe how to perform them, you just know how to do them.

Unavailable for conscious inspection -in other words carrying out the action automatically without much awareness of the memory (unconscious and automatic) in addition they use muscle memory to perform (hence non declarative)

==> implicit = knowing how

Question 7

what is episodic memory?

Answer 7

responsible for storing information relating to a specific event or episode that happened in your life. i.e they have significance
- an example of an autobiographical memory as these are specific to you (knowing that)

Question 8

what are some examples of episodic memories?

Answer 8

• first day of school
• specific birthday
• getting married

==> these all contain time stamps which are the specific time and place each memory contains

Question 9

what are the features of episodic memory?

Answer 9

• they have a particular time and place
• declarative as they can easily be put into words and described verbally
• can be consciously inspected (conscious thought) as you have an awareness of the specific personal memory

==> explicit = knowing that

Question 10

what is semantic memory?

Answer 10

fact based memories for meaningful information
- also contains general knowledge about the world.

Question 11

what are some examples of semantic memories?

Answer 11

• capital of England is London
• meaning of words

Question 12

what are the features of semantic memories?

Answer 12

• not personal memories therefore there is no reference to time and place
  ==> may not be able to recall where we learned and encoded the semantic memories
• involves conscious thought to recall and are declarative as they can easily be verbally described and put into words
  ==> explicit = knowing that

Question 13

compare the types of long term memory

Answer 13

procedural memories are thought to be much more resistant to forgetting and amnesia (supporting evidence comes from case study Clive wearing)

different types of long term memories are located in different areas of the brain

Question 14

What supporting evidence for this model comes from Tulving (1994)?

Answer 14

AIM:used the brain imaging equipment PET scans to confirm that different parts of the brain deal with different types of LTM

PROCEDURE:participants were asked to think of a specific memory whilst the blood flow in their brain was being monitored

FINDINGS:
when participants thought about episodic memories (specific, autobiographical memories), a different part of the brain was activated compared to when semantic memories (fact based with no personal reference) were thought of.
- episodic tended to activate right prefrontal cortex
- semantic tended to activate left prefrontal cortex

CONCLUSION: this supports the claim that there are different types of long term memory and how different parts of the brain are involved

Question 15

how can patient H.M be used as supporting evidence to this theory?

Answer 15

provides evidence for different types of long term memory.
- during his childhood he had a bicycle accident and as a result developed epilepsy
- his seizures kept worsening each time and reached a severity where medications had little impact and had to undergo a surgery
- this involved having his hippocampus from both hemispheres of the brain
==> this only reduced his seizures and had a dramatic impact on his memory

Question 16

what did patient H.M have after his operation?

Answer 16

Now he had anterograde amnesia which in the loss of the ability to form new memories.
==> had problems forming some types of long term memory but not all

Question 17

how did Brenda Milner study patient H.M to support that there are many types of long term memories.

Answer 17

completed a procedural memory task
(an action movement task)
- had to trace a line in a star shape whilst only being able to watch his hand movement in a mirror.
- began quite poorly but overtime as he repeated this, he got a lot better at this task suggesting he can form long term memory for knowing how to do the task.

episodic memories
- each time he came to do this task he had no memories of ever completing it before and therefore has no episodic memories

Brenda Milner concluded how there are different types of long term memories:
semantic: he would forget the person he was talking to the moment they left
episodic: had no memories of the time and place of ever completing the task before
procedural: created new long term memories for the tracing line task as his ability improved

Question 18

how can the case study of Clive Wearing be used as supporting evidence for the types of LTM?

Answer 18

He was a musician and conductor but in 1985 suffered from a viral infection that attacked his nervous system and specifically his hippocampus and as a result developed anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories) and retrograde amnesia (inability to recall past memories)

Question 19

how has the anterograde amnesia affected Clive wearing?

Answer 19

(the loss of ability to form new memories)
He was thought to have a 30 second episodic memory capacity
- this was shown when he was talking to his wife and then she left the room. However, when she returned she was greeted with joy as he had no recollection of seeing her for a while. Had completely forgotten he had been talking to her

Question 20

how has the retrograde amnesia affected Clive wearing?

Answer 20

the loss of ability to recall past memories.
This meant he couldn’t recall many memories prior to his infection, before 1985.
For example, he knows he has children, but e cannot remember their names (lost the semantic memory)
For example, he knows he has a wife but he cannot remember getting married

Question 21

what part of Clive wearing’s LTM remained intact.

Answer 21

his procedural memory.
This was shown through his ability to still perform many complex piano pieces.

Question 22

How does Clive wearing support the theory?

Answer 22

provides evidence for the existence of different types of LTM
- episodic memory is severely impaired lacking the ability to create new episodic long term memories
- procedural memories remain intact, can still play the piano
- semantic memory impaired and he cannot remember the specific events and time stamps but he knows they happened.

Question 23

what is the counter argument in an AO3 point when using a case study as supporting evidence

Answer 23

They lack generalisability (low ecological validity)
==> unique cases which are rare and unusual studies and so are specific to one individual and so the findings about long term memory may not generalise to the wider population.

Question 24

What is a criticism to the types of long term memory?

Answer 24

Both semantic and episodic memory have similar encoding processes however they both initially encode in separate parts of the brain but by the end they are all connected together by the hippocampus.

Cohen and Squire (1980) claim that there should only be two types rather than three and that it has been over complicated.
==> claim episodic and semantic memories are both a part of declarative memory and so shouldn’t be considered separate types