Types of Long Term Memory

• Episodic Memory:

  • Episodic memory= a time stamped memory, eg first day of school
  • Takes conscious effort to retrieve- explicit.
  • An episode= a sequence of smaller events occurring as part of a larger event.
  • Concerned with personal experiences, including time, place, people, context, emotions etc.
  • Can be broken into detail, context & emotion.
• Procedural Memory:

  • Our skills or knowledge of how to do something.
  • Acquired through practice & repetition, eg riding a bike.
  • It's automatic, therefore we are less aware of these memories- may cause you to make errors.
  • It's important to be automatic, so it does not take up our attention, leaving us able to do other things at the same time.
  • Unconscious retrieval- implicit.
• Semantic Memory:

  • Knowledge of the world/ facts shared by everyone (not personal), eg where the Eiffel Tower is.
  • Can relate to things, such as purpose of an object, or to behaviour.
  • Can relate to abstract concepts such as maths or language.
  • May start as an Episodic Memory, as we do a lot of our learning through personal experience, but soon remember the fact, rather than the context of how/ where we learnt it.
  • Takes conscious effort to retrieve- explicit.
• Episodic:

  • Explicit
  • Type: personal experiences
  • Brain region: Hippocampus
• Procedural:

  • Implicit
  • Type: performed tasks or skills
  • Brain region: Cerebellum & Motor Cortex
• Semantic:

  • Explicit
  • Type: knowledge
  • Brain region: Temporal lobe
• Evaluation for Types of LTM- Strength:

  • Tulvings 'gold' memory study provides research support for different locations of LTM in the brain.
  • When PPs thought about semantic memories, there was greater concentration of blood flow towards the back of the brain.
  • When PPs thought about episodic memories, there was greater concentration of blood flow towards the front of the brain.
  • Tulvings' study suggests that episodic & semantic memories are separate forms of LTM. Also seems likely that these types of memory are located in different parts of the brain. (Scientific research= a strength).
• Evaluation for Types of LTM- Strength:

  • Case study: HM had brain surgery to remove the Hippocampus to treat his severe epilepsy, and as a result of the surgery, he could not form new LTM's, but could remember before the surgery (to a certain extent).
  • His procedural memory was intact & he could learn new skills, but he could not remember actually learning them (semantic/ episodic memory).
  • Provides evidence that different types of LTM are located separately.
• Evaluation for Types of LTM- Strength:

  • Clive Wearing: had a virus that infected & damaged his hippocampus in his brain, resulting in the destruction of some of his memory.
  • He was an accomplished musician & whilst still able to play the piano brilliantly, he had no memory of ever having learned to play.
  • Provides evidence that different types of LTM are located separately.
  • Strength: has good ecological validity.
  • Weakness: replication, reliability & generalisability are poor.