Types of long term memory

Question 1

what did Tulving believe that the multi-store memory model of long term memory was?

Answer 1

too simplistic and inflexible

Question 2

what did Tulving believe there was instead?

Answer 2

three different stores for different types of information

Question 3

what is episodic memory?

Answer 3

our ability to recall events from our lives

Question 4

what type of memory is the episodic memory?

Answer 4

explicit memory

Question 5

what do episodic memories usually include?

Answer 5

details of an event
context in which the event took place
emotions associated with the event

Question 6

what is semantic memory?

Answer 6

memory for facts and knowledge about the world

Question 7

what type of memory is semantic memory?

Answer 7

explicit memory

Question 8

what do semantic memories usually start as?

Answer 8

episodic memories

Question 9

what happens to semantic memories over time?

Answer 9

progressively semantic memories loose their association with particular events and only the knowledge remains

Question 10

what is a procedural memory?

Answer 10

memory of how to do things

Question 11

what do procedural memories require a lot of?

Answer 11

repetition and practice

Question 12

what are procedural memories? and what does this mean?

Answer 12

implicit meaning we find them very difficult to explain even if we find the actions easy to perform

Question 13

what are procedural memories?

Answer 13

automatic

Question 14

Evaluation: Case studies support - HM and Clive Wearing

Answer 14

• Episodic in both was impaired due to brain damage but semantic memory were unaffected.
• This means they understood words e.g. HM couldn’t remember stroking a dog half an hour earlier but didn’t need the concept of dog to be explained.
• Procedural memories also intact- both could walk and speak.
• Evidence supports that there are different memory stores in LTM.

Question 15

Evaluation: Case studies aren’t always perfect

Answer 15

• Lack control variables.
• Brain injuries usually unexpected.
• Researcher has no way to control what happens to participants before or during injury.
• Researcher doesn’t know how good the individuals memory was before so the researcher has no knowledge of how much worse it was after.

Question 16

Evaluation: Conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain

Answer 16

• Psychologists reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory and concluded semantic memory was located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic on the right.
• However other research links the left prefrontal cortex with episodic memory and the right with semantic.
• Challenges any neuropsychological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement on where each type may be located.

Question 17

Evaluation: Understanding LTM lets psychologists help people with memory problems

Answer 17

• E.g. as people age they experience memory loss.
• Research has shown this seems to be specific to episodic memory.
• One psychologist created an intervention to improve episodic memory in older people - trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group.
• Shows distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed.