Tulving's study

• Episodic memory

  • Describes a long-term memory that is based on personal events in our lives
  • Contains personal information
• Semantic memory

  • Describes a long-term memory that is based on our knowledge of the world
  • Contains factual information
• Aim of Tulving's study

  • To see whether thinking about episodic and semantic memories used different parts of the brain
• Method of Tulving's study

  • 6 volunteers injected with radioactive gold so active areas of the brain can show up on a scan
  • 8 tasks
  • Episodic tasks - Told to think about personal experiences
  • Semantic tasks - Told to think about historical events
• Results of Tulving's study

  • In 3 of 6 participants, Episodic memories were shown to be active in the front of the brain
  • Semantic memories were shown to be active in the back of the brain
• Conclusion of Tulving's study

  • Episodic and Semantic memories are separate types of long-term memory
  • They are in different parts of the brain
• Evaluation of Tulving's study (1)

  • Weakness
  • Contained a small sample size
  • Cannot generalise results to the whole population
  • Lacks population validity
• Evaluation of Tulving's study (2)

  • Weakness
  • Only 3 participants support his theory
  • Not everybody shows different brain activity when accessing different memories
• Evaluation of Tulving's study (3)

  • Strength
  • He used an objective measurement
  • Tulving used brain scans which cannot be questioned
  • Factual evidence - not influenced by Tulving's opinion