Types of Long-term Memory

• Why is there different types of long-term memory?

  Tulving (1985) realised that the MSM's view of LTM was too simplistic. Therefore, he proposed that there are in fact three LTM stores, containing different types of information: episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory. These can be classified as either declarative memory or non-declarative memory
• What is declarative memory?

  Involves conscious recalls of facts and events and includes 2 types. Episodic and semantic memory. Declarative = conscious
• What is non-declarative memory?


  Involves unconscious recall and is used for tasks that do not require active recollections, such as procedural memory and learned associations. Non-declarative is automatic and unconscious
• What is procedural memory?

  • Memory for actions or skills - how we do things
  • We can recall these memories without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort
  • E.g. driving a car, our ability to do this (eventually) depends on procedural memory
• What is episodic memory?

  • Our ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives
  • This has been likened to a diary, a record of daily happenings
  • E.g. most recent visit to the dentist, a gig you went to last week
  • They are time-stamped, each memory of a single episode includes people or places, and thirdly a conscious effort is made to recall episodic memories
• What is semantic memory?

  • Contains our knowledge of the world. This includes facts, but in the broadest possible sense
  • Has been likened to a combination of an encyclopedia and a dictionary
  • For example, the taste of an orange, what zombies like for dinner and the meaning of a word. Semantic memory contains impressive amount of concepts such as 'animals' and 'love.' However these memories are not time-stamped - we do not remember when we learned about each concept
  • Less personal and more about facts we all share
  • Constantly being added to - an immense collection of material