Types Of LTM

Question 1

Endel Tulving (1985)

Answer 1

• One of the first cognitive psychologists who stated that the MSM’s view of long-term memory was too simplistic and lacked flexibility.
• Proposed that there are 3 different long-term memory stores all containing different information.

Question 2

Episodic Memory

Answer 2

• Refers to our ability to recall events from our lives (episodes)
• Very much like a diary of personal experiences
• Complex memories
• Time-stamped
• Several elements in a single episode
• You make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories. It is a quick process but you are aware that you are searching your memory.

Question 3

Semantic Memory

Answer 3

• This store contains our stored knowledge of the world
• Not time-stamped
• Stores less personal things
• Contains an immense collection of information and is always being added to (recalled deliberately).
• Tulving claimed that it was less vulnerable.

Question 4

Procedural Memory

Answer 4

• This is our memory for actions and skills.
• We recall these without conscious awareness or much effort.
• We find these skills hard to explain to other people eg. Driving and walking

Question 5

Clinical Evidence for LTM

Answer 5

Clive Wearing.
- Despite his severe memory loss, Clive Wearing still knew how to walk and speak, implying that his procedural memory was still in tact.
- He also knew how to play the piano, read music and sing.
- Clive could remember the days of the week and months showing that his semantic memory remained.
- However, his episodic memory was severely damaged as he believed he was constantly ‘waking up’ and couldn’t remember anything from more than 30 seconds previous.

Question 6

Counterpoint to Clinical Evidence

Answer 6

• A major limitation is that they lack control of variables.
• Brain injuries are usually unexpected so the researcher has no way of controlling what happened to the participant before and during the brain injury (how their memory was originally).
• So, how can psychologists judge exactly how much memory has been effected?

Question 7

Conflicting neuroimaging evidence

Answer 7

• There is conflicting research linking types of LTM
• Randy Buckner and Steven Petersen (1996) reviewed evidence of the location of semantic and episodic memory.
• They concluded that the semantic memory is located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right.
• However, other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episodic retrieval.

Question 8

Real-world application

Answer 8

• Understanding different parts of the LTM help with memory problems.
• As people age, they experience memory loss.
• Research has shown that its usually episodic memory that occurred recently that becomes harder to recall and those memories from the past remain intact.
• Sylvie Belleville et al. (2006) devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people. After ‘training’- the participants performed better on a test of episodic memory than the control group.
• This shows that distinguishing between the different memory stores allows specific treatments to be developed.