Types of long-term memory

Question 1

what are the types of LTM?

Answer 1

semantic
episodic
procedural

Question 2

what is semantic memory?

Answer 2

contains information regarding facts, concepts, knowledge we’ve learned
uncomplicated
does not include contextual information

Question 3

what is episodic memory?

Answer 3

memories of experiences and events and consists of multiple senses

Question 4

what is procedural memory?

Answer 4

stores information regarding the way we carry out actions without conscious involvement (muscle memory)

Question 5

differences between LTM

Answer 5

time stamped:
E stored with reference to time and place
S cannot recall when learnt
P cannot recall when learnt in childhood

declarative:
E declarative
S declarative
P non-declarative

conscious
E consciously - explicit
S consciously - explicit
P unconsciously - implicit

forgetting
E easy to forget
S resistant to forget
P very hard to forget

Question 6

case study supporting LTM

Answer 6

Clive Wearing has retrograde amnesia
cannot remember education (episodic) but remembers facts about his life (semantic) and can still play piano (procedural)
He has anterograde amnesia so unable to encode new episodic or semantic memories but is able to gain new procedural memories via repetition
This suggests that semantic, episodic and procedural memory exist as separate processes as CW lacks episodic completely, can recall but not encode semantic memory and his procedural memory is function - likely related to the damaged area of his brain

Question 7

evaluations of LTM

Answer 7

+ use of idiographic research (CW case study) allows researchers to study memory in more detail
- use of case studies means generalising the findings to the wider population is difficult - there may be other unknown issues unique to the individual to explain the behaviour
+ use of brain scanning techniques (Tulving) allows researchers to study brain and memory more scientifically - FMRI’s identify which types of memory are associated with specific brain areas - allows ideas from case studies to be studied via nomothetic methods on larger and healthy samples of people so generalisations can be made
- similarity between types of LTM suggests that it may not be truly distinct - episodic and semantic are both declarative and episodic become semantic over time - link between semantic ad procedural as we are able to produce automatic language e.g. talking fluently using semantic concepts without having to consciously recall details

Question 8

explain a study into LTM

Answer 8

Tulving