Types of long term memory

Question 1

episodic memory

Answer 1

memory for personal events in your life. These are ‘time stamped’ and require some effort to recall. They also have different components such as people, places, objects and behaviours.

Question 2

semantic memory

Answer 2

knowledge and facts about the world, it can also include knowledge about the meanings of words.

Question 3

procedural memory

Answer 3

memories for actions, skills and how we do things. They relate to things we do automatically in that we don’t require conscious effort to recall them.

Question 4

Evaluation strength: support from Clive Wearing

Answer 4

He was able to recall knowledge such as the meaning of words as well as being able to perform certain skills such as playing the piano but had problems recalling personal events that occurred before his illness.

Question 5

Evaluation strength: Support from Tulving et al (1994)

Answer 5

found evidence from PET scans that showed that the left prefrontal cortex lit up for semantic memory and the right prefrontal cortex lit up for episodic.

Question 6

Evaluation strength: positive application

Answer 6

research has been used to help elderly people improve their episodic memory.

Question 7

Evaluation weakness: brain damaged patients

Answer 7

these participants may not be reflective of all people so may not be generalised to a population.

Question 8

Evaluation weakness: Evidence against Cohen & Squire (1980)

Answer 8

stated episodic and semantic can be classed as declarative which relates to information we can consciously recall. Whilst procedural could be classes as non-declarative.