memory: Long-term memory Flashcards
What are the three types of LTM proposed by Tulving?
- Episodic memory,
- Procedural memory,
- Semantic memory
Define episodic memory.
The ability to recall events from our lives, time-stamped memories of personal experiences
Give examples of episodic memory.
- Most recent visit to the dentist
- 10th birthday party
outline characteristics of episodic memories
- The memories are time-stamped
- include several elements, such as people and places, objects and behaviours
- You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories. You may be able to do so quickly, but you are still aware that you are searching for your memory
- Episodic memories can be expressed verbally
(declarative)
Define procedural memory.
Memory for actions or skills, how we do things without conscious awareness
What is an example of procedural memory?
- Riding a bike
- playing the piano
outline characteristics of procedural memory
- recall these memories without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort
- eg: riding a bike > Our ability depends on procedural memory
- Difficult to explain verbally (non-declarative)
- these memories are not time-stamped
Define semantic memory.
Store of knowledge about the world, including facts and concepts
Give examples of semantic memory.
- Knowledge of applying to university
- Taste of an orange
- Meaning of words
outline characteristics of semantic memory
- not time stamped We don’t remember when we first learnt about things
- less personal and more about facts
True or False: Episodic memories are often time-stamped.
True
Fill in the blank: Procedural memory is ________ and difficult to explain verbally.
non-declarative
True or False: Semantic memory involves personal experiences.
False
AO3: research to support
There is evidence from brain scans studies that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain
Tulving et al got participants to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. They found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex. The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories and the right prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling episodic memories.
STRENGTH because it supports the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM, within the brain.
COUNTER: Other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episodic retrieval
This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement on where each type might be located.
AO3: real life application
it allows psychologists to help people with memory problems
As people age, they experience memory loss. But research has shown that this seems to be specific to episodic memory. It becomes harder to recall personal events that occurred relatively recently, although past episodic memories remain intact.
Belleville et al devised an intervention to improve episodic memory. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after
training than a control group
STRENGTH as this shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed
AO3: research to support
There is research from clinical evidence to support the idea that there are different memory stores in LTM.
Clive Wearing suffered from brain damage. His semantic memories were relatively unaffected as he understood the meaning of words. Additionally, his procedural memories were unaffected as he could play the piano, walk and talk. But his episodic memories were as he was unable to recall personal memories.
This supports the idea that there are at least two stores for LTM as each store was affected differently
