long term memory

• what are the three main types of ltm?

  procedural memory, semantic memory, episodic memory
• what do the three types of ltm mean?

  • procedural memory: memory for skills, muscle memory.
  • semantic memory: record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge of the external world, e.g. capital cities, food.
  • episodic memory: our memory of experiences and specific events, e.g. a wedding, or birthday, individuals tend to see themselves as actors at these events and recall their emotions and the context.
• which of the three ltm types are explicit or implicit?

  • procedural: an implicit memory (we don't need to be consciously aware of the precise memory)
  • semantic: an explicit memory (we have conscious knowledge of learning the info)
  • episodic: an explicit memory
• who was Henry Moliason (H.M.)

  he had epilepsy and so his hippocampus was removed, however this caused him to not be able to lay down new memories, and he only remembered his memories from before the operation.
• what can be some evidence that types of ltm are stored in different places?

  H.M. could not lay down any episodic or semantic memories, however he became skilled at drawing around a star while looking in a mirror, due to practice- procedural memory.

  Clive Wearing could still play the piano, even though he had a severe case of amnesia.
• What did Spiers et al find in the 147 amnesia cases the reviewed in 2001?

  episodic was impaired in most cases,

  semantic was impaired in some cases,

  procedural was unaffected.
• what might this mean biologically?

  episodic memories are linked to the hippocampus,

  procedural memory is linked to the cerebellum and the basal ganglia.
• how did Endel Tulving research the difference in processing between episodic and semantic, with neuro-imaging in 1989?

  took 6 volunteers (including him, his wife and a colleague), each performed 4 episodic and 4 semantic, 80 second trials in silence. after 60 seconds they were injected with radioactive gold which was tracked by a scanner.
• what were Tulving's findings?

  episodic memories resulted in greater activation of the frontal cortex, semantic memories resulted in greater activation of the posterior region of the cortex; gives evidence that there are different types of ltm.
• strengths and weaknesses of Tulving's study:

  s: shows some evidence for types of ltm, successful neuro-imaging.

  w: only 3/6 people had successful conclusive results, not generalisable to public, Tulving and wife and colleague were participants which could've introduced bias.
• evaluate research into the ltm

  s: biological evidence provides reliable and unbiased evidence to support separate ltm stores (scans), case study evidence (H.M.), support from research into patients with Alzheimer's

  w: sample sizes in studies are often small which makes it difficult to generalise findings, case studies can't be replicated, studying people with brain injuries lacks control of variables, findings may only be relevant to certain individuals.