types of long term memory Flashcards
what did Endel Tulving 1985 say about long term memory?
he was one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise that the MSM’s view of the long term memory was to simplistic. he proposed 3 LTM stores, containing different types of information
what are the 3 long term memory stores?
episodic
semantic
procedural memory
what is the implicit memory?
information you remember unconsciously and effortlessly
what is the explicit memory type?
information you have to consciously work to remember
what is the episodic memory?
this refers to our ability to recall events from our lives. this has been likened to a diary, a record of daily happenings
what are the memories like in the episodic memory?
- they are time stamped so you remember when they happened (e.g. recently, last week, this morning)
- your memory of a single episode will include several elements (e.g. people and places, objects and behaviours are all interwoven to produce a single memory)
- you have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories. you may be able to do this quickly, but you are still aware that you are searching for your memory of what happened when)
what are some examples of episodic memories?
- memories of a specific birthday
- certain visit to the doctors
- breakfast you ate that morning
- first date
- first day at school
- what you watched on TV last week
what is semantic memory?
this store contains our knowledge of the world. this conscious type of memory is like a combination of an encyclopaedia and a dictionary. these memories are not ‘time-stamped’, that is, we don’t usually remember when we first learned about these things
what is semantic knowledge?
it is less personal and more about facts we all share. however, it is much more than memory about facts- it contains an immense collection of material which is constantly being added to.
what are some examples of semantic memory?
- taste of an orange
- meanings of words
- knowing capital cities
- purpose of a piggy bank
- your address
- words of a song
what is procedural memory?
it is our memory for, actions, skills or basically how we do things. we can recall these memories without concious awareness or a great deal of effort (muscle memory). our ability to do this eventually depends on our procedural memory. these skills we might find hard to explain to someone else, if you try to describe what you are doing whilst doing it, the task can become more difficult
what are some examples of procedural memory?
- driving a car
- checking a bill
- ride a bike
- make a cake
AO3: how is ‘clinical evidence’ a strength to the types of long term memory?
one strength to the types of long term memory is that there is supporting clinical evidence. for example, the case of Clive Wearing supports the idea for different long term memory stores. for example, he could still form new procedural memory’s, but was unable to form new episodic or semantic memory’s. therefore, this supports the idea that one store can be damaged but other stores are unaffected, and that not only these types of memory are different, but they are stored in different parts of the brain.
AO3: how is ‘neuroimaging evidence’ a strength to the types of long term memory?
one strength to the types of long term memory is that there is supporting neuroimaging evidence. this is because brain scan studies show that different types of memory are stored in different types of the brain. for example, Tulving et al 1994, got their participants to perform various memory tasks whilst their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. they found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex with the left prefrontal cortex being involved in recalling semantic memories and the episodic memories being recalled from the right prefrontal cortex. therefore, this supports the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM within the brain and it has been confirmed many times in later research studies, further increasing the validity of the findings.
AO3: how is ‘the types are not distinct and separate’ a limitation to the types of LTM?
one limitation to the types of long term memory is that the type are not distinct and separate. this is because a lot of the time memories cant be described as episodic or semantic. for example, when recalling holiday memories, the recall is episodic but knowing concepts such as remembering the beach is semantic memory. therefore, this suggests that a lot of the time when recalling memories there is a mixture of both episodic and semantic information.
