Types of Long-term Memory

Question 1

What are explicit/declarative memories?

Answer 1

Facts or memories of past events that can be recollected then declared, rather than performed

Question 2

What are implicit memories?

Answer 2

Unconscious or automatic memories that are performed rather than recalled

Question 3

What is episodic memory? What type of memory is it?

Answer 3

• The ability to recall events in our lives
• Declarative memory that is not resistant to forgetting

Question 4

What is semantic memory? What type of memory is it?

Answer 4

• The ability to recall facts and information
• Declarative memory that is not resistant to forgetting

Question 5

What is procedural memory? What type of memory is it?

Answer 5

• The ability to recall skills and actions
• Implicit memory that is resistant to forgetting

Question 6

What is priming?

Answer 6

The temporary increase in accessibility of thoughts and ideas

Question 7

What are the evaluations for the strengths of LTM types?

Answer 7

Evidence from brain scans
* Supported by brain scan research
* Episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe that the semantic also relies upon
* Procedural memory is associated with the cerebellum, which controls fine motor skills and motor cortex
* The strength of these findings supports the view that there is a physical reality to different types of LTM in the brain. Also confirmed in many later studies, supporting validity

Support from clinical evidence
* The case of HM supports types of LTM
* HMs ability to form new LTMs was affected by the destruction of his hippocampus and parts of temporal lobe, but he could retain pre-existing LTMs
* AFter studying and testing HM, it was discovered he could form procedural memories but not episodic or semantic, e.g he could draw a star in the mirror but could not remember doing it
* This supports the distinction between procedural and declarative memories, and also the distinction between LTM types

Question 8

What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of LTM types?

Answer 8

Problems with evidence from patients with brain damage
* Care must be taken when using evidence from brain damaged patients
* Difficult to reach firm conclusions by studying brain damaged patients as it is hard to determine the exact parts of the brain that have been affected until the patient is dead. Damage to a particular area does not necessarily mean the area is responsible
* Cases such as HM are unique and rare, therefore cannot become generalised to the whole population
* We cannot establish a casual relationsip between a particular brain region and type of LTM

Fourth type of LTM
* Possibility of other LTM types raises questionns about other existing theories
* Priming describes how implicit memories influence the response of a person to a stimulus, e.g if a person is given a list of words including yellow, they are more likely to say banana due to priming. This is a type of implicit memory as the aswers are automatic and unconscious
* Research shows priming is controlled by a brain system separate to temporal lobe, causing a further subtype called PERCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEM memory. A study reserached 147 patients with amnesia. In all cases procedural memories and PRS intact, but semantic and episodic memories were not. Supports ideas that two kinds of implicit memory are not affected by amnesia.