types of LTM

Question 1

what is episodic memory?

Answer 1

• ability to recall events, timestamped
• info about how events relate to each other in time
• memory of events includes elements such as people, places, behaviours
• have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories

Question 2

what is semantic memory?

Answer 2

• shared knowledge of the world, such as meanings of words, what foods taste like etc.
• memories aren’t timestamped, less personal
• according to Tulving, it is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting

Question 3

what is procedural memory?

Answer 3

• memory for actions or skills, and how we do things
• can recall these without conscious awareness or effort
• often quite difficult to explain these skills to someone else

Question 4

clinical evidence for the different types

Answer 4

• episodic memory in HM and Clive Wearing was impaired, but their semantic and procedural memories were largely intact
• supports Tulving’s views that there are different memory stores
• HM - learning to draw star in mirror, got better overtime but he had no memory of doing the task - can develop procedural memory overtime, didn’t develop episodic memory

Question 5

conflicting evidence for the different types

Answer 5

• Buckner and Peterson reviewed evidence about locations of semantic and episodic memory
• they concluded that semantic is left and episodic is the right side of the prefrontal cortex
• however, other research states the other way around