Types of long-term memory

• What are the 3 types of LTM?

  • Episodic
  • Semantic
  • Procedural
• What is an episodic LTM?

  Events / episodes from our lives

  • Time-stamped (remember when they happened)
  • Involves people, places, objects and behaviours
  • Takes the most effort to recall
• What is a semantic LTM?

  Knowledge of the world

  • Not time-stamped
  • Less personal than episodic
• What is a procedural LTM?

  Actions and skills

  • Become automatic with practice
  • Takes the least amount of effort to recall
• What is a strength of the types of LTM?

  Case study evidence - increased validity/reliability/usefulness

  • Both Clive Wearing and patient HM both showed difficulty recalling their episodic memory (CW: marrying his wife, HM: owning a dog). However, both their semantic and their procedural memory was still intact (CW: piano, HM: knows what a dog is).

  COUNTERARGUMENT - IDIOGRAPHIC

  • Case studies cannot be generalised to the general population as this research is specific to that person - not representative.
• What is another strength of the types of LTM?

  Helps people with memory problems - specific treatments

  • Memory loss in old age is specific to episodic - Belleville et al created an intervention for old people targeting their episodic memory - improved memory compared to control group.
• What is a limitation of the types of LTM?

  Conflicting findings

  • Tulving et al did brain scans, and found that semantic memory was associated with the right prefrontal cortex, and the episodic was associated with the left prefrontal cortex. However, Buckner and Peterson did further research 2 years later, and found that it was in fact the other way around (semantic=left, episodic=right).