Types of Long-Term memory Flashcards
(6 cards)
What did Tulving suggest the three LTM stores were?
-Episodic memory
-Semantic memory
-Procedural memory
What is Episodic memory?
-Refers to our ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives
-Memories are complex
-They are time-stamped ( when they happened and what happened)
-memory of a single episode includes many elements interwoven to produce a single memory
-Have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memory , but is done quickly
What is Semantic memory?
-Contains our shared knowledge of the world and concepts
-Not time stamped
-less personal and more factual
-According to Tulving, less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory
What is procedural memory?
-memory for actions, skills – how we do things
-recall these memories without conscious awareness or much effort
What are the strengths of Tulving’s types of LTM?
-Real-world application: understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to help people with memory problems. As people age they experience memory loss and research shows this seems to be specific to episodic memory. Belleville devised an intervention to improve episodic memory in elders. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training compared to the control group. Therefore distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments
-Clinical evidence: case studies of HM and Clive Wearing. Episodic memory in both was severely impaired due to brain damage, but still understood meanings of words (Semantic memory) and procedural memories fine- Clive Wearing could still read music and play th piano. This supports that there are different memory stores as damage did not ruin all LTM.
-However, clinical studies are not perfect as they lack control of variables. The researcher has no way of controlling what happened to the participant before the injury or their memory before the injury. This makes it difficult to judge how much worse it is afterwards. Therefore lack of control limits what clinical studies tell us about different types of LTM.
What are the limitations of Tulving’s types of LTM?
-Conflicting neuroimaging evidence: conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain.
Buckner and Petersen concluded semantic memory is located on the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right after reviewing research. However, research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and right 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.
