types of long term memory

• what is a major limitation of the MSM?

  it describes LTM as being a unitary store but research studies show psychologists there are many types of LTM
• what is Tulving's role in research into LTM?

  he was one of the first psychologists to realise the MSM's view of LTM was too rigid and over-simplified so he proposed that there are three LTM stores
• what are the three LTM stores?

  episodic memorysemantic memoryprocedural memory
• explain episodic memory as a LTM store

  episodic memory - memory for events in lifeit's time stampedit includes several elements like what was involvedit requires a conscious effort to retrieve
• explain semantic memory as a LTM store

  semantic memory - knowledge about the world e.g. facts and conceptsit's not time stamped less personal than information in episodic memoryinformation we all shareconstantly being added to
• explain procedural memory as a LTM store


  procedural memory - memory for actions and skillsskills have to be learned but become automatic so we don't require a conscious effort to recall them
• give two strengths of Tulving's three types of LTM

  :) clinical evidence from patients from amnesia - e.g. HM couldn't remember stroking a dog recently (lost procedural memory) but understood concept of a dog and remembered owning a dog before (retained semantic memory) - shows there are different types of LTM:) neuroimaging evidence - Tulving et al (1994) asked participants to perform different memory tasks in a PET scanner- found that the left prefrontal cortex was active when recalling semantic memories + the right prefrontal cortex was active when recalling episodic memories - different types of memory are located in different parts of the brain - idea of there being different types of LTM is valid
• give two weaknesses of Tulving's three types of LTM

  :( unique case studies - lack generalisability to people in different situations, lack reliability as they can't be repeated to test replicability, lack validity as there are many uncontrolled variables, may be unethical if the participant is subjected to many tests:( alternative theories - Cohen and Squire (1980) disagree with Tulving, suggest there are two types of LTM - declarative memory (memories that can be consciously recalled) and non-declarative memory (memories that can't be consciously recalled)
• give two reasons as to why considering alternative theories is important

  - our understanding of memory has to be accurate if it's going to be applied to sufferers of amnesia - if we know whether LTM is made up of 2 or 3 stores we know exactly which type of memory is affected - it's part of the scientific process, we should accept the theory which best matches evidence from lab experiments and clinical studies of amnesia