Types Of Long-term Memory Flashcards
(9 cards)
What did Tulving propose?
Tulving (1985) believed that the MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible. He proposed three LTM stores which contain different types of information:
• Episodic memory
• Semantic memory
• Procedural memory
Describe the episodic memory
• Memory of events (episodes) from our lives.
• e.g. your most recent visit to the dentist, a gig you went to last week, the psychology class you had yesterday and the breakfast you ate this morning.
• ‘time-stamped’, meaning you remember when they happened.
• One episodic memory of a single episode will include several elements, such as people and places, objects and behaviours and all of them are interwoven to produce a single memory.
• You must make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories (a type of declarative memory).
Describe the semantic memory
• Memory of our knowledge of the world such as facts.
• e.g. knowledge of applying to university, the taste of an orange, the meaning of words etc.
• Not usually ‘time-stamped’ i.e. We don’t usually remember when we learned a specific fact.
• You must make a conscious effort to recall semantic memories (a type of declarative memory).
Describe the procedural memory
• Memory for actions, or skills (how we do things).
• e.g. driving a car, riding a bike, playing a guitar etc
• We recall these memories without conscious effort/awareness (a type of non-declarative memory).
• As they do not require conscious awareness we often find it hard to explain them to someone else e.g. if you try to describe what you are doing as you drive the car, the task may become more difficult.
• Not usually ‘time-stamped’ i.e. We don’t usually remember when we learned how to do something.
EVALUATION POINT ONE:
(+) Supporting clinical evidence
1. Clinical case studies
A) Clive Wearing got viral meningitis which destroyed his hippocampus and parts of his frontal lobe. This meant Clive could no longer make new episodic memories. However, Clive’s procedural memory was still intact e.g. he could still play the piano. This shows episodic and procedural memory are different and that these types of memory are controlled in different parts of the brain.
B) HM had a bike accident and cracked his skull. He suffered from seizures and had his hippocampus removed. He cannot make new memories-no episodic memories made. However his procedural memory system was still intact e.g. he could draw and every day he drew the drawings got better. This shows long-term memory must have different stores as episodic was damaged but procedural was not and this shows types of memory are controlled in different parts of the brain.
EVALUATION POINT TWO:
(+) Supporting clinical evidence
2. Neuroimaging studies
Tulving (1989)
Aim: To see whether episodic memory and semantic memory are separate memory systems located in different areas of the brain.
Method: Tulving injected quantities of radioactive gold into his own blood stream. He then thought about semantic memories (e.g. historical facts) or about episodic memories (e.g. events from his summer holidays when he was a child). Scanners were used to monitor the blood flow in his brain.
Results: The two different memory tasks showed distinct patterns of blood flow in the brain. Episodic memories involved increased blood flow in the front of the brain, whereas semantic memories involved increased blood flow in areas toward the back of the brain.
Conclusion: The results supported the view that episodic memory and semantic memory are in different areas of the brain and thus are different stores.
Tulving was the only participant as his procedure was extremely dangerous. One limitation of only having one participant is that the results cannot be generalised to others meaning his findings about semantic and episodic memories being controlled in different areas may not be correct.
Tulving et al. (1994) conducted a follow up study to his original investigation where participants had to perform various memory tasks while their brains were being scanned using a PET scanner. They found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from an area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. This area is divided in two, one on each side (or hemisphere) of the brain. The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories. Episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex. This supports the view that different types of LTM are in different parts of the brain.
EVALUATION POINT 3:
(+) Real-life application
Being able to identify different aspects of the LTM has allowed psychologists to develop specific treatments to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives. Belleville et al. (2006) demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had mild cognitive impairment. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group.
EVALUATION POINT 4:
(-)Problems with clinical evidence
Clinical case studies lack control of many different variables and thus it is very difficult to establish cause and effect or to be sure of the validity of findings about the existence of different types of LTM. There are also problems with generalising from small samples/individuals to other people so we cannot be sure that other people have different types of LTM.
EVALUATION POINT 5:
(-) Overcomplicated
Cohen and Squire (1980) disagreed with Tulving’s division of the LTM into three types. They believe that procedural memories represent one type of LTM which is non-declarative (can be recalled without conscious effort). However, they argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one LTM store that they call the declarative memory (requires conscious ‘effort’ to be recalled). This suggests that Tulving’s three types of LTM may not be correct.
