Types of Long-Term Memory Flashcards
Outline the different types of LTM
- Explicit (or declarative) memory and implicit (or procedural) memory. There’s a distinction between knowing that and how.
- Episodic and semantic are examples of knowing that (explicit/declarative memories.) Procedural memories are knowing how.
Describe episodic memory
- Concerned with personal experiences, and recollection of it, time, place and who was there.
- You may also recall the context around the event, like what happened before or after, or why you were there. Even the emotions associated that you felt at the time.
- So, episodic memories have 3 elements: specific details of the event, context, and the emotion
Describe semantic memory
- Knowledge about the world that is shared by everyone rather than the personal kind
- May relate to things (functions of objects), to what behaviour is appropriate (social customs), but also abstract concepts (languages)
- Usually begin as episodic as we acquire knowledge based on personal experiences. There is gradual transition where the memory slowly loses its association to particular events, so info can be generalised as a semantic memory. However some have a strong recollection of when and where they learned a certain fact.
Describe procedural memory
- Concerned with skills and remembering how to do something rather than the rules of what to do (knowing how to behave towards others, compared to behaving nicely towards others)
- Acquired through repetition and practice and is implicit.
- We are less aware of them as they are automatic. Often, if you think about procedural memories too much, it prevents you from acting them out. The attention to the step-by-step procedure disrupts the well-learned, automatic performance.
- They are automatic so we can focus our attention on other tasks while performing these everyday skills
Give evaluation for types of LTM (case studies)
- Case study support. CW he lost his memory due to a brain infection and HM lost memory due to a hippocampus removal. Both amnesic patients had suffered similar effects to their LTM. Their procedural memory was completely unaffected, CW could still play the piano. Their semantic memory was somewhat affected, CW couldn’t remember his daughter’s name but could remember he was married and his wife. The episodic memory was most impaired as new LTMs of events couldn’t be formed and lost memory of events around the start of memory loss. However, the STM was completely intact. Suggests there is atleast 3 distinct types of LTM.
- However, it is difficult to be certain of the exact parts of the brain that have been affected until the patient has died, and most studies are conducted with living patients. Furthermore, damage to a part of the brain doesn’t mean it’s responsible for a particular behaviour, it could act as a relay station. Malfunction of the relay station would impair performance. So, we cannot establish a causal relationship between a particular brain region and type of LTM
Give evaluation for types of LTM (brain scans)
There has been distinctions made between the 3 kinds of LTM is supported by brain scan research. Episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe, as well as with activity in the frontal lobe. Semantic memory also relies on the temporal lobe. Procedural memory activation is associated with the cerebellum, involved with fine motor skills and the motor cortex. The basal ganglia and limbic system are also involved in this learning. Therefore, brain scans indicate that 3 types of memory are found in different parts of the brain.
Give evaluation for types of LTM (Alzheimer’s)
Support from studies of patients with Alzheimer’s. Hodges and Patterson (2007) examined the relationship between episodic and semantic memories and found some Alzheimer’s patients retain the ability to form new semantic memories but not episodic. Irish et al found the reverse in Alzheimer’s patients, they had poor semantic memories but generally intact episodic memories
