Types of Long Term Memory (LTM)

• The problem with the MSM…

  One of the key criticisms of the MSM is that it is too simple because it describes both short-term memory (working memory) and long-term memory as unitary stores. 

  Tulving (1985): Cognitive Psychologist - realised that the MSM’s view of the LTM was too simplistic and inflexible. Tulving proposed that there are 3 LTM stores containing different types of information. 

  • Episodic memory  
  • Semantic memory 
  • Procedural memory
• Episodic memory

  = memory for events (episodes) from your life.

  = memory for the things you have done and experiences you have had

  Examples: A visit to the dentist, a concert you went to last month,  your birthday party when you were 10….

  =Those memories are TIME-STAMPED.

  You recall the time and place of those episodes. You also remember who else was there, what happened before and after. You may also remember what you felt about it.
• Semantic memory

  = semantic is about “meaning”

  = like your own encyclopedia. It is the meaning of everything you know. It is the knowledge you share with other people (whereas episodic memories are unique to you)

  Examples: Paris is the capital of France, England won the world cup in 1966

  Semantic memories are not timed-stamped. (We don’t usually remember when we first learned about Justin Bieber for example (if you do, then this memory is episodic). 

  These memories are declarative. You are required to make a conscious effort to remember them
• Procedural memory

  = is muscle memory – remembering how do to things

  = we can recall those memories without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort

  Examples? How to cycle, driving a car (we change gear without having to recall how…), playing the guitar

  = skills that are difficult to explain to someone else
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (+) Clinical evidence

  Rosenbaum et al., 2005- K.C. had a motorcycle accident which left him with widespread brain damage that includes large bilateral hippocampal lesions. These caused memory impairment, most of his general knowledge of the world, including knowledge about himself is intact but he is incapable of recollecting any personal events, this “episodic amnesia” covers his entire lifetime. 

  = This shows that semantic memory and episodic memory are two distinct processes.
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (+) Clinical evidence

  HM and Clive Wearing both had brain damage which severely affected their episodic memory but their semantic and procedural memories were relatively intact. Clive Wearing could  read and play very complex pieces of music on a piano. 

  = They show that procedural memory is distinct from both semantic and episodic memory.
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (-) Case studies

  • However they are case studies so they cannot be replicated for practical and ethical reasons so the reliability of the findings cannot be checked. 
  • They are not perfect. For example, there is a lack of control of different variables in clinical studies. 
  • The sample in each of the studies consists only of one patient so the results are influenced by individual characteristics so we cannot generalise the results to the wider population.