Types of Long Term Memory

Question 1

what are the three types of long term memory

Answer 1

episodic - memories of our experiences
semantic - facts/general knowledge
procedural - unconscious skills/ how to do things

Question 2

AO1 LTM

Answer 2

• Episodic memory – a long-term memory for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort
• Semantic memory – a long-term memory store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately
• Procedural memory – a long-term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort

Question 3

AO3 (1) LTM

Answer 3

• One strength of the idea that there are different types of LTM is that there are many examples of brain damaged patients to support this
• For example, looking at people such as Clive Wearing and HM has shown that although both men had problems with their episodic memory, their semantic memory and procedural memory were still intact. This can be shown through Clive’s memory of how to play the piano (procedural) and that he has a wife (semantic) however he could not remember their wedding day or when he last saw her (episodic).
• This is a strength because it supports the idea that there are three stores/types of LTM as after brain damage one store was damaged whilst the other two stayed intact which means they can’t recall episodic memories but can recall semantic and procedural and that they would’ve lost all memories if they were all in one store so there must be three stores
• Case studies are useful in this context because they have a real world application as their experiences and their cases can’t be fabricated to support the idea.
• However, a limitation is that findings from case studies cannot be proved as they are based on individuals with brain damage. This is a problem because it may well be that their brain damage causes other difficulties such as paying attention therefore they may do not do well in memory tasks when being tested. Another problem is case studies cannot be replicated as this would be unethical, therefore it is difficult to test the validity of the results to investigate if there really are different types of LTM.
• Despite this, overall the use of case studies raises the internal validity of the proposal that there are different types of LTM.
• Thus increasing the validity of types of LTM

Question 4

AO3 (2) LTM

Answer 4

• A strength of types of long term memory is that it allows psychologists to help people with memory problems
• For example, researchers devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group
• This is a strength as when people age, they experience memory loss. But research has shown this seems to be specific to episodic memory as it becomes harder to recall memories of personal events/experiences that occurred relatively recently though past episodic memories stay intact which means that it can help people get the specific help they need to recall episodic memories
• However, it can be argued that not every older person will be able to be treated this way as this early treatment won’t work for everyone therefore reducing its reliability.
• Despite this, distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed
• Thus increasing the validity of types of LTM

Question 5

AO3 (3) LTM

Answer 5

• A weakness of types of LTM is that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain
• For example, researchers reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory. They concluded that semantic memory is located in the left size of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right.
• This is a weakness as other research links the left prefrontal cortex with semantic memories (Tulving et al), which reduces the reliability of research as it is not clear which is the correct research.
• However, it can be argued that differences in research findings may stem from variations in methodology or individual differences in brain structure
• Despite that, this challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement on where each type might be located
• Thus reducing the validity of types of LTM

Question 6

strengths of LTM

Answer 6

supporting evidence (biological evidence)

supporting evidence (case studies) Clive Wearing - destruction of hippocampus from illness caused inability to store new episodic or semantic info for any more than a few secs but could do procedural perfect like read write speak play piano

Question 7

weaknesses of LTM

Answer 7

challenging research - ppl believe semantic and episodic should be understood as the same type of memory called ‘declarative memory’