Long-term Memory

• Who Did a Study on Long Term Duration?

  Bahrick et al.
• Method of Bahrick's Study

  400 American PPs aged 17-74 Y/O.

  Recall was tested:

  Photo Recognition - School year book pictures

  Free Recall - Names of people graduating in their class.
• Results of Bahrick's Study

  15 years of leaving - 90% in both correct

  Up to 48 years (correct):

  80% names

  70% faces
• Conclusions from Bahrick's Study

  LTM can last a very long time, potentially a lifetime.
• Positive Evaluation(s) of Bahrick's Study

  High ecological validity - Real life memories
• Negative Evaluation(s) of Bahrick's Study

  Confounding Variables are not controlled for - People could have looked at the year book. (rehearsal)
• AO3 of Duration of LTM

  LTM may be seen as lost but actually is just a problem with memory access

  Type of testing technique used may affect findings
• Who Looked at different sections of LTM?

  Tulving-

  He realised thsat the Multi-Store LTM was too simplistic
• What did Tulving Propose about LTM?

  Made of 3 Parts:

  -Episodic Memory

  -Semantic Memory

  -Procedural Memory
• What is Episodic Memory?

  A LTM store for Personal Events

  They're 'time stamped' (Dates)

  The memory of a single episode which includes several elements i.e. places and people

  Conscious recall
• What is Semantic memory?

  Contains our knowledge of the world, includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean.

  Conscious Recall
• What is Procedural Memory?

  Stores our knowledge of how to do things. Includes memories of learned skills.

  Unconscious Recall
• Which case study shows that LTM has different stores?

  Clive Wearing- The episodic part of his brains were impaired due to his amnesia. They had trouble recalling thier past.

  His Semantic and procedural memory were unaffected.

  Wearing knew hoe read music sing and play the piano.

  Supports Tulving Theory.

  
• Postive Evaluation Points for LTM?

  Case Studies support the idea of different stores

  Brain scan studies provide evidence that there are 3 different stores

  Benefits real-life applications
• Negative Evaluation Points for LTM?

  Problems with clinical evidence- case studies ( lacks control of all variables)

  Could be two instead of three- actually seperated as declarative and non-declarative (Cohen and Squire)