Types of Long term memory (WMM) Flashcards
What is episodic LTM?
Long-term memory store for personal events
- includes when event occurred and ppl, objects etc involved. e.g where you went last week
• memories retrieved with consciously and with effort (explicit)
• expressed verbally (declarative)
• less resistant to forgetting
What is Semantic LTM
store for our knowledge of the world.
- facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. e.g capital of Germany, how things taste
• memories retrieved with consciously and with effort (explicit)
• expressed verbally (declarative)
• less resistant to forgetting
What is procedural LTM?
store for our knowledge of actions and skills.
- memories of learned skills. e.g how to drive or ride a bike
• recalled without making a conscious or deliberate effort. (implicit)
• difficult to explain verbally (non-declarative)
• more resistant to forgetting
Where is episodic LTM in the brain
associated with hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe
also in frontal lobe
Where is semantic LTM in the brain?
temporal lobe
Where is procedural LTM in the brain
cerebellum and motor cortex
What was the aim of Tulvings study i to the STM
investigate if episodic and semantic tasks were processed differently
What was the method of Tulvings study into LTM
6 ppts injected with radioactive gold which would be detected in the body using a gamma ray detector.
Ppts then thought about semantic memories or episodic memories.
Ppts would start thinking about a topic and 60 seconds later they would be injected with the gold.
Then scanned 8 seconds later when the gold would have got to their brains
What were the results of Tulvings study into LTM
The two different tasks provided different patterns of blood flow in the brain.
Episodic memories were associated with increased blood flow in the frontal lobes of the cortex
Semantic memories were associated with increased blood flow in the posterior region of the cortex
What was the conclusion of Tulvings study into LTM
Episodic and semantic LTMs involve different parts of the brain and are therefore separate parts of the LTM.
suggests a biological basis for differences in the LTM.
What is a strength of Tulvings experiment i to LTM
- high control
What is a limitation of Tulvings experiment i to LTM
- small sample size
- low ecological validity
Evaluate high control as a strength of Tulvings experiment
P: lab experiment and therefore establishes cause and effect.
E: Had high control over extraneous variables we can be confident that the IV
(whether participants recalled semantic or episodic memories) affected the DV (the location of increased
blood flow in the brain).
E: Strength of the study because results are unlikely to be affected by confounding variables and we
can therefore be confident that the conclusion that episodic and semantic LTM involve different parts of the brain and that LTM is divided into separate parts is internally valid.
Evaluate low ecological validity as a limitation of Tulvings experiment
P: A limitation of Tulving’s research involves asking participants to think about
semantic or episodic memories in order to track where the blood flows
E: However, there is no way to be sure that participants are actually recalling those memories at that time.
E: Limitation because the findings that LTM involves different parts of the brain would not be internally valid.
Evaluate low population validity as a limitation of Tulvings experiment
P: Low population validity.
E: Sample consists of six participants which is a very small sample size and is not a good representation of the population. It could be that the
individual’s LTM memories in this sample work differently to other people’s LTM memories.
E: Limitation because it may be difficult to generalise the findings. In addition, because the sample size is small it
reduces the confidence researchers can have in the conclusion being valid because the data is limited
What are strengths of the different types of LTM
- Clive wearing case study
- Supported by PET scans
What are limitations of the different types of LTM
- low population validity (clive wearing)
- over simplistic
Evaluate the case study of Clive Wearing as a strength of different LTM
P: Supported by case studies such as Clive Wearing.
E: Clive Wearing was able to still play the piano; he knows what a piano is but cannot remember having learnt to play it. Playing the piano a procedural memory, knowing what a piano is, is a semantic memory, and remembering piano lessons is an example of episodic memory.
E: Therefore the case study of Clive wearing provides evidence that the claim episodic semantic and procedural memories are separate systems is valid.
Evaluate support from PET scans as a strength of different LTM
P: Supported by research
using PET scans.
E: For example, Tulving et al asked 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 pre-frontal cortex. The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling
semantic memories and the right prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling episodic memories.
E: Strength because it demonstrates that LTM is separated into different stores and are located in different areas of the brain.
Evaluate low population validity as a limitation of Clive Wearings case study
P: Has low population validity.
E: Sample only consists of one person - Clive Wearing – and his brain and memory may be unique to him and not represent all other individuals in the population.
E: Therefore the findings from the case study that LTM is divided into three may be difficult to generalise to other people
Evaluate over simplicity as a limitarion of different LTM
P: The claim that there are three types of LTM may be over simplistic.
E: For example, priming describes how implicit memories influence the responses of a person to a stimulus. If a person is given a list of words including the word ‘yellow’ and is later asked to name a fruit,
they are more likely to answer ‘banana’ than if not primed.
This is a kind of implicit memory because the answers are automatic and unconscious. Research has shown that the priming is controlled by a brain
system separate from the temporal system that supports explicit memory
E: This is a limitation of the theory on the three different types of LTM as there may also be a 4th, the perceptual representation system (PRS) memory relating to priming and has been supported by the research of Speirs et al (2001).
LINK: This suggests the other types of LTM may exist and original theory of LTM maybe too simplistic.
