Long-term memory stores

• Broken down to two stores, declarative memory and implicit memory.
• DECLARATIVE MEMORY

  Episodic memory - personal experiences. We tend to remember the time and place of the even as well as who was there. You have to make a conscious effort to recall.

  Semantic memory - requires a conscious recall. This is information that is known to everyone and not personal to the individual. Semantic memories begin as episodic as we acquire the knowledge based on personal experiences, it gradually changes with the person forgetting they learnt the information.
• IMPLICIT MEMORY

  Procedural memory - skills and knowing how, doesn’t require conscious recollection. Usually develop through repetition and practise which makes the memories automatic. Automatic nature allows us to focus our attention elsewhere.
• STRENGTHS

  Supporting research:

  • Tulving et al (1994) PET scans on participanrs brains whilst doing various tasks. Found that episodic and semantic memories were recalled from the prefrontal cortex, left for semantic, right for episodic. Supports different stores for LTM as they’re physically different
  • CASE STUDY: HM by Milner 1962
  • Practical application - Belleville et al (2006) possibility to improve episodic memories in older people. Training made them perform better on a test of episodic memory. Helps with people who have cognitive impairments.
• LIMITATIONS

  Methodological issues - research comes from case studies which only focus on one individual, so it is unique to them so can’t be generalised to the rest of the population.

  Difficult to distinguish - difference between episodic and semantic isn’t clear. There is a lot of overlap. So this isn’t clearly explained and there could be important information missing.