Types of long term memory

• AO1

  • Claims there are different types of long term memories that can either be explicit (require conscious recall) or implicit (don’t require conscious recall)
  • Semantic memories = explicit memories of shared facts or knowledge (the battle of Hastings was in 1066)
  • May start as an episodic memory but becomes semantic once association with time and place is lost
  • Episodic memories = explicit memories of personal events (family holiday)
  • Procedural memories = implicit memories of how to do things , associated with skill (how to ride a bike)
• AO3 (brain scans)

  • Evidence of different types of LTM from brain scans
  • Episodic memory has been linked to the hippocampus and frontal lobe , semantic memory has been linked to the temporal lobe , procedural memory has been linked to cerebellum and motor cortex
  • Empirical evidence for types of LTM using scientific measures increases internal validity and lends credibility
  • May only show correlation not causation , cannot directly assume the use of those memories activated those regions of the brain
• AO3 (case study)

  • case studies provide further support for different types of LTM
  • patient HM after surgery to remove his hippocampus to reduce severe epilepsy, was able to learn how to mirror draw suggesting he could still form procedural memories despite not being able to form new declarative memories
  • supports the idea of separate types of LTM increasing internal validity
  • small atypical sample lacks population validity and therefore can’t be generalised
• AO3 (Alzheimer’s)

  • Research support for different types of LTM from Alzheimer’s patients
  • Hodgers and Patterson found some patients with Alzheimer’s was able to form new semantic memories but not new episodic memories
  • Suggests that episodic memories and semantic memories are separate and therefore increasing internal validity of the claim that there are separate types of LTM