Types of long term memory

• Three types of long term memory

  • episodic
  • semantic
  • procedural
• what is episodic memory

  • stores events from our lives
  • like a diary of personal experiences
• episodic memories are complex

  • they are time stamped
  • they involve several elements (people, plates, objects and behaviours)
• do episodic memories require unconscious effort or conscious effort to recall them


  conscious
• what is semantic memory

  • like a combination of an encyclopaedia and a dictionary
  • stores our knowledge of the world
• are semantic memories time stamped


  no
• are semantic memories less or more personal than episodic memories


  they are less personal than episodic memories and more about facts/knowledge we all share
• what does the procedural memory store

  • memories for actions and skills
  • how we do things e.g driving a car
• recall occurs without awareness or effort

  • skills become automatic with practice
  • explaining the step by step procedure is hard because you do it without conscious recall
• One strength is case study evidence of different types of LTM

  clinical studies of amnesia (HM and Clive Wearing) showed both has difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts (episodic memory). But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected (e.g. HM didnt need to concept of dog explain to him). Procedural memories were also intact (clive wearing still played the piano). This supports the view that there are different memory stores in LTM because one store can be damaged but the other stores are unaffected
• one strength is case study evidence of different types of LTM: counterpoint


  researchers lack control in clinical case studies - they don’t know anything about the persons memory before brain damage. therefore clinical studies are limited in what they can tell us about different types of LTM
• one limitation is conflicting findings about types of LTM and brain areas

  Buckner and Petersen (1996) reviewed research findings and concluded that semantic memory is located in the left prefrontal cortex and episodic with the right prefrontal cortex. but other studies (e.g. Tulving 1994) have found that semantic memory was associated with the right prefrontal cortex and the reverse for episodic memory. this challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement of where each type might be located
• another strength is helping people with memory problems.

  memory loss in oled age is specific to episodic memory - its harder to recall memories of recent experiences although past episodic memories are intact. Belleville (2006) devised na intervention for older people targeting episodic memory, which improved their memory compared to a control group. this shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed.