Types of LTM Flashcards
What are the three types of LTM?
1) Procedural
2) Semantic
3) Episodic
What is procedural memory?
Procedural memory is a part of the long-term memory is responsible for knowing how to do things, i.e. memory of motor skills, such as riding a bike. Procedural memories are non-declarative as they do not involve conscious recall. The area of the brain responsible for procedural long-term memories is the cerebellum and motor cortex.
Semantic memory
Responsible for storing knowledge about the world. For example, knowledge about the meaning of words, such as ‘love’, as well as general knowledge such as facts i.e., London is the capital of England. Are declarative as they do involve conscious recall. Semantic memories are not ‘time stamped’ – we do not usually remember when and where we first learned the information. The brain area responsible for semantic long-term memories is the temporal lobe.
Episodic memory
Responsible for storing information about event that we have experienced in our lives at a specific time, for example our first day of school. Episodic memories are declarative as they do involve conscious recall Episodic memories are ‘time stamped’ – we remember when and where we learned these memories. The brain area responsible for episodic long-term memories is the Hippocampus.
Evaluations
1) PEEL
2) PEEL
3) PEEL
4) Discussion
1) Neuroimaging evidence
2) Scientific methods
3) Case study - Clive Wearing
4) Discussion: Low population validity
AO3: Neuroimaging evidence
A strength of the different types of long-term memory is that there is neuroimaging evidence to support the notion that there are different types of LTM. For example, participants were asked to perform various memory tasks whilst their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. It was found that episodic memories were associated with the hippocampus, whereas procedural memory was associated with the cerebellum and motor cortex. This supports the different types of LTM BECAUSE the three different types of LTM were found in different areas of the brain, indicating that they are separate. Therefore, increasing the validity of research investigating types of LTM.
AO3: Scientific methods
Moreover, the research into the different types of LTM, such as that described above, can be praised as it uses scientific methods and uses scientific enquiry to investigate memory. Objective and empirical techniques such as brain scans, are used to identify the different parts of the brain that become active when completing different types of LTM tasks, for example the cerebellum and motor cortex being active when carrying out a procedural task. Therefore, it could be argued that this increases the overall internal validity of the research into types of long-term memory, thus raising Psychology’s scientific status.
AO3: Case study Clive Wearing
To further evaluate the different types of long-term memory, it has real life evidence from a case study of Clive Wearing. He suffers from amnesia in which his episodic memory was damaged as he could not remember some events from his past, for example his musical education. However, Clive’s procedural memory was still working as he could remember how to play the piano. This supports the idea that there are different types of long-term memory BECAUSE if only certain parts of his LTM are damaged, this indicates that they are separate. Therefore, increasing the validity of types of LTM.
Discussion: Low population validity
However, this research to support can be criticised as it has low population validity. This is because the research was a case study, using only Clive as a participant who suffers from an unusual illness involving damage to the brain. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise the findings of the different types of LTM to the wider population as their LTM may operate differently, thus limiting the support that the research provides for the different types of LTM.
