episodic and semantic memory- Tulving

• Episodic memory

  • Receives and stores info about experiences or events that occur at a specific time in our life.
  • Autobiographical in nature because it relates to memories that are unique and specific to an individual.
• Which part of the brain is episodic memory linked to?

  • Prefrontal cortex/ frontal lobe
  • Hippocampus
• Episodic memory

  • Known as a mental diary
  • Dependent on time-referencing memories about events e.g. recalling your first day at school is linked to the date.
  • Retrieval is dependent on context in which the event was initially learned or experienced.
• Is retrieval affected by transformation?

  • Episodic memory can transform during retrieval (memory trace may change)
  • Episodic memory is unlikely to work without semantic memory as we need to be able to draw on previous knowledge of objects, people and events that occur to understand them.
• Semantic memory

  • Memory for meanings e.g. meanings of words and symbols. Needed for language.
  • Linked to temporal lobe
  • A 'mental encyclopedia'- stores words, facts, rules.
  • E.g. remembering that Paris is the capital of France.
• Semantic memory

  • Independents of time referencing, as info can be recalled without references to when it was learned.
  • Retrieval of semantic memory is not dependent on the context in which it was learned.
• Is retrieval affected by transformation?

  • Semantic retrieval leaves the memory trace unchanged from its original form.
  • Can operate independently of episodic memory
• Strengths- HM

  • SE- HM- unable to form new LTM's both episodic and semantic after hippocampus was removed.
  • Supports link between hippocampus and temporal lobes and episodic and semantic memory.
• Strengths- Irish

  • SE- Irish found that Alzheimer's patients could remember personal events from their past (episodic) but no remember facts from current memory (semantic) e.g. whether taken medication.
  • Shows 2 types of memory are separate and that you can have poor semantic memory but good episodic memory.
• Strengths

  • Brain scans show increased activity is observed in temporal lobes when semantic memories are being recalled.
  • Objective evidence that episodic and semantic memory stores are in different areas of the brain- supports scientific nature of psych.
• Weakness- scientific credibility

  • Semantic and episodic memory are difficult to separate because a word can have a semantic feature and an episodic reference.
  • Impossible to determine if a person is only using 1 type of memory or may be relying on both.
• Weakness- reductionist

  • Isolates episodic and semantic memory and ignores other types of memory e.g. procedural memories.
  • Memory is more complex and involves STM and which is ignored here.
• Weakness- Squire and Zola

  • Studied children and adults with amnesia and found that both their episodic and semantic memory ability was equally impaired.
  • Suggests that the 2 memory types are linked and are not separate as Tulving suggests.