Evaluation

• One strength of types of LTM is support from the case of Clive wearing. Clive wearing was a musician who suffered from brain damage from a viral infection (amnesia).He lost the ability to code new memories and forgets everything in 30 seconds. Although Clive wearing has lost his episodic memory, he still has his semantic memory as when his wife Deborah enters the room, he greeted her joyously showing that he still recognises her although he has no episodic memory of Deborah, he has semantic knowledge of her as he remembers that he loves her. He also has his procedural memory intact as he can play the piano still demonstration how there are different types of ways information is stored in LTM
• Research from the case of HM further supports the different types of LTM as HM had brain surgery to treat his epilepsy. HM had to remove his hippocampus. After his surgery he was unable to form new episodic and semantic memories as he couldn’t remember meeting someone moments before the interaction. HM did not recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier but he didn’t need the concept of a dog explained to him. This demonstrates that episodic and semantic memories are distinct forms of explicit memory which rely on the hippocampus for encoding and retrieval. Furthermore, his case also supports the separation between explicit and implicit memory systems as although his episodic and semantic memory is impaired, he was still able to learn new procedural skills this highlights that procedural memory a type of implicit memory relies on different brain regions like the cerebellum or basal ganglia rather than the hippocampus.
• Brain scan studies support the different types of LTM stores. Tulving et al had participants perform various memory tasks while their brain were scanned with a pet scanner. Episodic and semantic memories were in the prefrontal cortex and episodic in the right prefrontal cortex. This shows a physical reality in the brain to the different types of LTM.
• One limitation is that there are problems with clinical evidence based on clinical cases about what happens when memory is damaged such as HM and Clive wearing as they lack control over variables as we cannot control the precise location of the brain damage this makes it difficult to generalise from these cases.
• A strength of the different types of LTM is that it has real world application as it allows psychologist help people with memory problems. For eg as people age they experience memory loss specifically episodic memory. Belleville et al found that episodic memories can be improved in older people with mild cognitive impairments. Cognitive training led to improvements compared to a control group. This allows specific treatment to be developed.