types of long-term memory

Question 1

Tulving (1985)

Answer 1

proposed that there are 3 stores in the LTM containing different types of information

Question 2

Episodic memory (personal events)

Answer 2

• refers to any event that can be reported from a person’s life (holiday & wedding)
• has to be retrieved consciously and with effort
• time stamped

Question 3

Procedural memory (how we do things)

Answer 3

• our implicit knowledge of tasks that usually don’t require conscious recall to perform them (riding a bike)
• usually recalled without making a conscious and deliberate effort
• people may find it easier to show than explain

Question 4

Semantic memory (knowledge)

Answer 4

• conscious recall of facts that have meaning ( words of a song)
• need to be recalled deliberately
  not time stamped

Question 5

Evaluation of types of LTM: clinical evidence (strength)

Answer 5

• case of HM & clive in which their episodic memory was impaired due to brain damage and semantic & procedural memory was unaffected
• HM= couldn’t recall stroking a dog 30 mins prior ( didn’t have to explain what a dog is)
• Clive = knew how to read music , sing and play piano
• supports the idea that there are different types of memory in LTM

Question 6

Evaluation of case studies

Answer 6

strengths = - ecological validity
- detailed

weakness = - lack of generalisations

Question 7

Evaluation of types of LTM: conflicting neuroimaging evidence (weakness)

Answer 7

• Buckner & Peterson (1996) = reviewed evidence of location of semantic and episodic memory
  
  • semantic = left side of prefrontal cortex
    - episodic = right side of prefrontal cortex
• research links left side of prefrontal cortex with episodic & right side with semantic
• challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there’s a disagreement on where each type is located

Question 8

Evaluation of types of LTM: real-life applications (strength)

Answer 8

• allows psychologists to help people with memory problems
• as people age they experience memory loss and research shows to be specific to episodic memory ( harder to remember events)
• Sylvie Belleville et al (2006) = devised intervention to improve episodic memory in old people
  
  • trained ppts performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than the control group
• distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments

Question 9

Evaluation of types of LTM: same or different (both)

Answer 9

• Tulving suggests that episodic memory is a ‘specialised subcategory’ of semantic memory
• people with amnesia have a functioning semantic alongside damaged episodic and concluded it is not possible to have a functioning episodic with a damaged semantic memory
• Hodges & Patterson (2007) = found people with Alzheimer’s could form new episodic memory but not semantic memory
• these suggest that semantic and episodic memory are different or the same