Types of long-term memory Flashcards
Who proposed that LTM is divided into three different stores?
Endel Tulving (1985).
What are the three types of long-term memory according to Tulving?
- Episodic memory (events & experiences)
- Semantic memory (facts & knowledge)
- Procedural memory (skills & actions)
What is episodic memory?
Memory of personal experiences (e.g., your last holiday or a recent psychology lesson).
What are the key features of episodic memory?
• Time-stamped (we remember when events happened).
• Includes multiple elements (people, places, emotions).
• Requires conscious effort to recall.
What is semantic memory?
Memory of general knowledge (e.g., knowing that Paris is the capital of France or what zombies eat).
What are the key features of semantic memory?
• Not time-stamped (we don’t remember when we learned most facts).
• Less personal, more about shared knowledge.
• More resistant to forgetting than episodic memory.
What is procedural memory?
Memory for skills and actions, like riding a bike or driving a car.
What are the key features of procedural memory?
• Does not require conscious effort (automatic).
• Hard to explain to others (e.g., describing how to ride a bike).
strength (1) of LTM
One strength is evidence from the famous case studies of HM (Henry Molaison) and Clive Wearing.
Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to brain damage (caused by an operation and infection respectively). But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. They still understood the meaning of words. For example, HM could not recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier but he did not need to have the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him. Their procedural memories were also intact.
They both still knew how to walk and speak, and Clive Wearing (a professional musician) knew how to read music, sing and play the piano.
This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM - one store can be damaged but other stores are unaffected.
limitation of LTM
One limitation is that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LI areas of the brain.
For example, Randy Buckner and Steven Petersen (1996) reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory. They concluded that semantic memory is located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episo memory on the right. However, other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episod retrieval (Tulving et al. 1994).
This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory there is poor agreement on where each type might be located.
strength (2) of LTM
Another strength is that understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to he people with memory problems.
For example, as people age, they experience memory loss. But research has shown this seems to be specific to episodic memory - it becomes harder to recall memories of personal events/experiences that occurred relatively recently though past episodic memories remain intact. Sylvie Belleville et al. (2006) devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people. The trainec participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group.
This shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed.
