Types of long-term memory

• What are the three types of long term memory?

  Episodic, semantic, procedural
• Who suggested the three types of long term memory?

  Tulving (1985)
• Why did Tulving suggest that there is three types of LTM?

  He realised that the multi-store model view of long term memory was too simplistic and inflexible. He proposed that there are three LTM stores containing quite different types of information.
• What is episodic memory?

  It is knowing that...

  the ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives

  like a diary its a record of daily happenings

  These memories are complex 3 things-

  -Time Stamped (remember when they happened)

  -a single memory has Several Elements (people, places, objects, behaviours)

  -you have to make a Conscious Effort to Recall episodic memories
• What are examples of episodic memories?

  Favourite song, primary school, favourite book, first memory, first crush, favourite teacher, birthdays, family holidays
• What is semantic memory?

  It is knowing that...

  -contains knowledge of the world that is shared by everyone

  -Facts, combination of encyclopaedia/ dictionary

  -contains knowledge of concepts such as animals, and love

  less personal and more about facts

  semantic can begin as episodic because we acquire knowledge based on person experience, info is generalised as a semantic memory
• What are examples of semantic memories?

  functions of objects, what behaviour is appropriate, social customs, mathematics, languages, where Paris is
• What is procedural memory?

  Knowing how...

  -memory for actions or skills (how we do things)

  -acquired through repetition and practice

  -remembering how to do something rather than knowing rules of what to do

  we can recall without conscious awareness or effort

  less aware of memories because they become automatic

  if you try and think about it may become more difficult
• What are examples of procedural memories?

  learning to drive, learning to ride a bike, knowing how to tie a shoe lace, playing the piano
• AO3- Strength of types of LTM- Supporting evidence Case study

  E- HM and Clive Wearing, HM had his hippocampus removed to stop epilepsy but damaged his memory he couldn't form new long term memories but he could perform immediate memories like playing the piano- procedural and semantic ( No episodic)

  E/L- Therefore, this suggests that there is existence of separate types of LTM backing up Tulving's explanation- making it more reliable
• AO3- Limitation of types of LTM- Research methods flawed

  E- much of the research uses case studies and these are small sample sizes, one unique individual, one event (limited sample). They also lack control variables because brain injuries are unexpected and researcher had no way of controlling what happened to the participant before the injury/ no knowledge of their memory before

  E/L- Therefore, this suggest that the study lacks generalisability, limits what clinical studies can tell us about LTM, undermining research into types of LTM, low external validity and replicability
• AO3- Strength of types of LTM- Real life practical application

  E- Belleville (2006), devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people, the trained participants performed better on test of episodic memory after training than a control group. - As people age they experience memory loss, specific to episodic memory

  E/L- Therefore this suggests that, strength because understanding types of LTM and types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed. Helps improve quality of everyday lives for people with memory loss.
• AO3- Limitation of types of LTM- Contradicting evidence

  E- Buckner and Petersen (1996), reviewed evidence regarding the location of episodic and semantic memory

  -semantic memories= left side of prefrontal cortex

  -episodic memories= right side of prefrontal cortex

  Tulving suggested left prefrontal cortex was encoding of episodic memories, right side was episodic retrieval

  E/L- Therefore this suggests that, it challenges the neurophysiological evidence, undermines research into types of LTM so we need to be cautious when generalising
• AO3- Limitation of types of LTM- Cognitive approach has concerns with machine reductionism- IDA

  E- the model considers how the human mind generates and operates like a thinking machine eg/ such as computers. and that we fall into the 3 categories ESP.

  E/L- Problematic because it ignores the influence of human emotion, motivation, lifestyle choices and how these may affect our ability to process

  Therefore, this suggests that it weakens validity of cognitive approach which underpins the LTM types too simplistic to fully account for our memory