Types of LTM

Question 1

Episodic memory:

Answer 1

A long-term memory store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects and places involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously with effort.

Question 2

Semantic Memory:

Answer 2

A LTM store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words mean. They need to be recalled deliberately.

Question 3

Procedural memory:

Answer 3

A long term memory store our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. Recalled without making a conscious effort.

Question 4

Endel Tulving 1985:

Answer 4

1. First cognitive psychologists to realise that the MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic.
2. Proposed that there were 3 types of LTM stores.

Question 5

EM: detail

Answer 5

1. Refers to our ability to recall events from our lives.
2. They are more complex and ‘time-stamped so you remember when they happened.
3. Your memory of a single episode includes several elements (people, places, objects and behaviours).
4. Need to make a conscious effort to recall them.

Question 6

SM: detail

Answer 6

1. Knowledge of the world, so facts in the broadest possible sense.
2. They are not time-stamped, so you do not remember when you first learnt.
3. It is less personal.

Question 7

Procedural Memory:

Answer 7

1. Memory for how we do things and can recall without conscious awareness or a great deal effort.

Question 8

Clinical Evidence:

Answer 8

1. Case studies of HM and Clive Wearing are relevant here.
2. Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as a consequence of amnesia. They had amnesia, which meant they had difficulty recalling events in their past. Despite this, their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. So HM would not be able to remember owning a dog at all, but he would not need the concept of a dog explained to him .
3. Their procedural memories were also intact. The evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM. One can be damaged but other stores are unaffected.

Question 9

E: Neuroimaging Evidence

Answer 9

1. Brain scan studies that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain.
2. For example, 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 recalled from the prefrontal cortex.
3. The area is divided into two and the left prefrontal cortex was responsible for recalling semantic memories, whilst episodic memories were recalled in the right prefrontal cortex. The strength is that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM.

Question 10

E: Real life Application

Answer 10

1. Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives.
2. Belleville et al. (2006) showed that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had undergone mild cognitive impairment. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group.
3. This highlights the benefits of being able to distinguish between types of LTM, because it enables specific treatments to be developed.

Question 11

E: Problems with Clinical Evidence

Answer 11

1. A limitation is that there are problems with the clinical evidence. Psychologists are very fascinated by studying people who have suffered brain damage and injuries.
2. Clive Wearing and HM have provided a lot of useful information about what happens when memory is damaged.
3. This has even helped researchers to understand how memory typically works. 4. But such clinical studies are not perfect. For example, there is a serious lack of control of extraneous and confounding variables in clinical studies.