Types of LTM

Question 1

Episodic Memory

Answer 1

Personal memories of events, like what you did yesterday.

May also recall associated emotions you felt at the time

Question 2

Procedural Memory

Answer 2

Memory for how to do things, e.g how to ride a bike or how to read.

These are automated as a result of practice

Question 3

Semantic Memory

Answer 3

Memories of facts and knowledge.
e.g maths knowlegde, or the fact that ice is made of water.

Question 4

What are the 3 elements of Episodic Memory

Answer 4

-Specific details of the event

-Context

-Emotion

Question 5

Which type of LTM is automatic?

Answer 5

Procedural.

These memories are automatic, and when they are thought about too much it often prevents it being acted out (e.g if you think about riding a bike too hard)

Question 6

What do semantic memories stem from?

Answer 6

They stem from EPISODIC MEMORIES.

Over time, personal memory loses its association to particular events, so the info becomes generalised as a semantic memory

Question 7

Supporting evidence from brain scans

Answer 7

Episodic - associated with hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe

Semantic - associated with temporal lobe

Procedural - associated with cerebellum (fine motor skills) and motor cortex

Question 8

Support from case studies

Answer 8

HM’s hippocampus was destroyedin an attempt to fix his seizures

HM’s ability to form new PROCEDURAL memories was undamaged.

He could not form new SEMANTIC or EPISODIC memories.

SUPPORTS DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRODEDURAL AND DECLARATIVE (semantic and episodic) MEMORIES - SUPPORTS MULTIPLE LTM TYPES.

Question 9

Problems with studying patients with brain damage

Answer 9

Difficult to be certain what exact parts of the brain have been effected until a patient dies.

-Most studies are done on living patients.

Damage to one area doesn’t necessarily mean it caused the particular behaviour.

Therefore hard to establish a causal relationship between a brain region and a type of LTM.