Types of Long Term Memory

• Proposed by Tulving as a criticism of the multi store model of memory, claimed it was oversimplified in suggesting a single LTM store
• Three types of LTM memory:

  • Episodic memory
  • Semantic memory
  • Procedural memory
• Episodic memory - memories of events that have happened in our lives, like a diary
• Characteristics of episodic memory:

  • Time stamped - we remember when they happen
  • Made up of several elements (people, places, behaviour) interwoven in a single memory
  • Recalled using conscious effort - we are aware of having to think to remember
  • Not taught to us
• Semantic memory - knowledge of facts about the world and meaning of words and concepts, like a dictionary
• Characteristics of semantic memory:

  • Not time stamped - we don't know when we remember these
  • Does not require effort to recall
  • May be taught to us
• Procedural memory - memory for actions of skills, how to do things such as driving a car
• Characteristics of procedural memories:

  • Usually recalled without conscious effort
  • Not time stamped
  • May be taught to us
• AO3 - Clive Wearing and HM

  These case studies show that although episodic memory was severely impaired, both men retained their procedural memory. They both knew how to walk, talk etc. Shows that in these cases there must be a distinction between different types of LTM
• AO3 - brain scans

  Have shown that episodic memories involve activity on the right side of the prefrontal cortex, whereas semantic memories involve the left side of the prefrontal cortex. This further support the idea that the different stores are physically separate. This finding has been replicated many times, giving it high validity
• AO3 - declarative memory

  Some researchers do not agree that episodic and semantic memories are stored separately. Suggesting they are both part of a single store named declarative memory (memories that can be consciously recalled).

  It is true that when we recall events we also draw on our meaning of those events so have a degree of interdependence between these two