Memory - Types of Long-Term Memory Flashcards
What are the three types of long-term memory suggested by Tulving?
- episodic memory (declarative)
- semantic memory (declarative)
- procedural memory (non-declarative)
What is episodic memory?
- stores events (episodes) from our lives
- this store has been likened to a diary of daily happenings
- episodic memories are complex
- they are time-stamped (you remember when they happened)
- they involve several elements (people, places, objects and behaviours are woven into one memory)
- you have to make a conscious effort to recall them
What is semantic memory?
- stores knowledge of the world
- this is like a combination of an encyclopedia and a dictionary
- semantic memories are not time-stamped
- semantic knowledge is less personal and more about the knowledge that we all share
What is procedural memory?
- stores memories for actions and skills
- these are memories of how we do things
- recall occurs without awareness or effort
- these are the sorts of skills we might even find quite hard to explain to someone else because we recall these memories without conscious awareness
What are the strengths of the types of long-term memory?
- it is supported by case study evidence
- brain scan studies show that there are different long-term memory stores
- identifying different long-term memory stores has real-life applications
What are the weaknesses of the types of long-term memory?
- there are problems with clinical evidence
- there may only be two types of long-term memory
What case study evidence supports the different types of long-term memory?
Clinical studies of amnesia (HM and Clive Wearing) showed both had difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts.
But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected (e.g. HM did not recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier, but he did not need the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him).
This supports the view that there are different memory stores in LTM because one store can be damaged but the others left unaffected.
What brain scan studies show that there are different long-term memory stores?
Tulving et al. (1994) had participants perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned with a PET scanner.
Episodic and semantic memories were in the prefrontal cortex; semantic in the left side and episodic in the right prefrontal cortex.
This shows a physical reality in the brain to the different types of LTM, confirmed in many research studies, supporting its validity.
What real-life applications are there to identifying different long-term memory stores?
Psychologists can target certain kinds of memory in order to improve people’s lives.
Belleville et al. (2006) found that episodic memories can be improved in older people with mild cognitive impairments. Training led to improvements (compared to control group).
This highlights the benefit of distinguishing between different types of LTM - it allows specific treatments to be developed.
What problems are there with clinical evidence?
Evidence is often based on clinical cases (e.g. HM and Clive Wearing) about what happens when memory is damaged.
There is a serious lack of control of different variables in these studies (e.g. cannot control the precise location of the brain damage or personality variables).
So it is difficult to generalise from these case studies to determine the exact nature of LTM.
How may there only be two types of long-term memory?
Cohen and Squire (1980) argued that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one LTM store called declarative memory (memories that can be consciously recalled).
Cohen and Squire agree that procedural memory is a distinctly different kind of memory to semantic/episodic, and call it non-declarative.
It is important to get the distinction between semantic and episodic memories right because the way we define them influences how memory studies are conducted.
