Long term memory

• Episodic LTM


  Can be explained verbally =declarativeCan be consciously recalled/assessed and inspected =explicitEpisodic memory involves -'knowing that'Episodic memories are related to -personal episodes or autobiographical life-events in an individual's life.Episodic memories involve -knowledge of specific details of event, emotions felt and context.
• Semantic LTM

  Can be explained verbally =declarativeCan be consciously recalled/assessed and inspected =explicitSemantic memories involve -knowing thatSemantic memory involves knowledge of -related to facts, concepts and the meaning of things such as objects
• Procedural LTM

  NondeclarativeThis means -difficult to explainProcedural memory involves -knowing howAccessing these memories requires little conscious effort.Procedural memory -requires practice often automatic allowing attention to be directed elsewhere.Procedural memory refers to -motor functions, skills, actions/muscle memory
• Case study of HM (Soville and Milner 1957)

  H.M was a patient who had a bicycle accident when he was younger. Subsequently, he had his left and right hippocampi removed to treat his severe epileptic seizures. Upon the removal of his hippocampi, HM was not able to form new semantic or episodic memories. However, with practice was able to become more efficient at tracing the image of a star in the mirror. Although he has had no memory of doing this task before, or meeting the researchers.
• Case study of Clive Wearing

  Similarly, case study of clive wearing found that following a virus which attacked his hippocampus he was not able to to form new episodic or semantic memories. He could not remember the last time hew saw a doctor or his wife visited him or his wedding. However, he is still able to competently play the piano.
• What do the case studies of H.M and Clive support about LTM?

  Both support that LTM isn't a unitary store and that there are different types of LTM. The hippocampus is involved in episodic and semantic.
• Are there any issues with generalising theories of LTM from case studies such as those described above?

  Its a small sample. There's no baseline measure of memory prior to the removal of hippocampi. Issues with generalising findings about type of LTM to wider population.
• Brain imaging evidence

  Brain imaging studies provide strong evidence, not only of the distinction between types of LTM, but that three different types of LTM are processed in different areas of the brain.fMRI scanshave revealed greater activity in the hippocampus when individuals recall personal,autobiographical memories(episodic). Similarly, thecerebellum and motor cortexhas been associated with the learning and performing of procedural memories.Semantic memoriesare though to be localised to the temporal lobes.
• Tulving 1989


  Injected himself and 7 others, with radioactive gold and had PET scans of their brain when thinking of semantic and episodic memories. He found that when retrieving episodic memories there was greater activation in the front of the frontal and parietal lobes, but when retrieving semantic LTM greater activity in the rear occipital and parietal lobes.
• What does brain imaging research contribute to our understanding of different types of LTM - why might brain imaging research be considered more scientific than the use of case studies?

  There are different types of LTM and these are localised to different areas of the brain. This provides scientific evidence for the existence of different types of LTM.
• :) - Dementia and Alzheimers disease

  Research with individuals with neurological diseases such as dementia and Alzheimers also support the distinction between different types of LTM and their different locations within the brain. It is typical for patients with Alzheimers disease to find that they forget epsiodic and semantic memories first, e.g. forgetting that they left the oven on or what they did last week. As the disease progresses they then forget how to cook or dress themselves and need assistance performing these once implicit tasks. Supporting that the different types of LTM are localised to different areas of the brain.