types of LTM

Question 1

What are the types of Long Term Memory?

Answer 1

-semantic
-episodic
-procedural

Question 2

What is an explicit memory?

Answer 2

-aka declarative
-a conscious memory you have to actively remember

Question 3

What is an implicit memory?

Answer 3

-aka non-declarative
-automatic
- we find them very difficult to explain even if we find the actions easy to perform.

Question 4

What is a semantic memory? Examples?

Answer 4

• memory for facts and knowledge
• explicit
• usually start as episodic memories but progressively lose their association with particular events and only knowledge remains
• e.g- words of a song, where the Eiffel tower is, purpose of a piggy bank

Question 5

What is an episodic memory? Examples?

Answer 5

• personal memories of events
  -explicit
• usually include details of an event, the context in which the event took place and emotions associated with the event.
• e.g- your friends wedding, your first day at school, your address, the argument you had with your friend last week

Question 6

What is a procedural memory? Examples?

Answer 6

• memory of how to do things
• require a lot of repetition and practice
• implicit
• e.g- how to ride a bike, how to drive, how to use your phone

Question 7

Where is Procedural Memory recalled from?

Answer 7

Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia

Question 8

Where is Episodic Memory recalled from?

Answer 8

Tulving found that they were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex, however Buckner and Peterson suggested they were recalled from the right.

Question 9

Where are semantic memories recalled from?

Answer 9

Tulving found that they were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex, however Buckner and Peterson suggested they were recalled from the left.

Question 10

What are the real world applications of types of LTM?

Answer 10

• Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives.
• Belleville (2006) demonstrated that episodic memories in older people with mild cognitive impairment could be improved.
• Participants that trained performed better on a test of episodic memory 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

Question 11

Explain the research support provided by the case studies of HM and Clive Wearing?

Answer 11

• Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to amnesia, however their semantic and procedural memories were unaffected.
• They both still knew how to walk and speak, and Clive Wearing (a professional musician) knew how to read music, sing and play the piano.
• This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM, because if LTM was one thing, all aspects of their LTM would be effected. It also supports the idea that they are stored in different places.

Question 12

What are the limitations of research on types of LTM?

Answer 12

• conflict over how many types there are
• a limit to the value of clinical studies (due to lack of control)

Question 13

Why is there conflict over the amount of types of LTM?

Answer 13

• Cohen and Squire (1980) disagreed with Tulving’s original division of LTM into three types.
• They accepted that procedural memories represent one type of LTM but argued that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one LTM store called declarative memory.
• Tulving (2002) himself has taken the view that episodic memory issues a specialized subcategory of semantic memory, concluding that it is not possible to have a functioning episodic memory with a damaged semantic memory.