Types Of Long Term Memory A03

Question 1

Strength - clinical evidence - Henry molaison and Clive wearing.

Answer 1

• Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as a consequence of amnesia.
• They had great difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts. But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. - For example, they still understood the meaning of words. So HM would not be able to recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier and could not remember having owned a dog in the past - but he would not need to have the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him over and over again.
• Their procedural memories were also intact.
• They both knew how to tie their shoelaces, how to walk and speak, and, in Clive Wearing’s case (he was a professional musician), 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.

Question 2

Strength - neuroimaging evidence - tulving et al (1994)

Answer 2

• There is also evidence from brain scan studies that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain.
• Tulving et al. (1994) got their participants to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner.
• They found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from an area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex.
• This area is divided in two, one on each side (or hemisphere) of the brain.
• The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories. Episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex.
• The strength of this is it supports the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM, within the brain.- high validity.

Question 3

Strength - real life applications - Belleville et al (2006) -

Answer 3

• Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives.
• demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment.
• The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group.
• Episodic memory is the type of memory most often affected by mild cognitive impairment, which highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between types of LTM - because it enables specific treatments to be developed.