Types of LTM

• about the LTM


  - LTM is the storage of memories over a long period of time

  - suggested there are 3 types, either declarative/explicit (what) accessed consciously, or non-declarative which are implicit and not consciously recalled
• define episodic LTM


  - experiences and events, 'time stamped' with reference to time and place

  - declarative, recalled consciously and auto biographical

  - strength of memory is influenced by emotion,associated with hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
• define semantic LTM


  - facts, meanings and knowledge

  - declarative and recalled consciously, strength from processing depth

  - lasts longer than episodic, not time stamped, episodic becomes semantic over time, associated with the perirhinal cortex
• define procedural LTM


  - unconscious memories of skills that are often learnt in childhood

  - non-declarative, not recalled consciously

  - more resistant to fore getting than episodic or semantic, associated with motor cortex and cerebellum
• A03 - Clive Wearing


  - has retrograde amnesia, cannot remember his musical education or wedding (episodic) however remembers facts about his life (semantic) and can play the piano (procedural)

  - cannot encode new episodic or semantic memories but can gain new procedural memories via repetition
• A03 - generalisation


  - generalising findings of ideographic clinical case studies to explain how memory works in the wider population is problematic
• A03 - types of LTM

  - may not truly be distinct

  - episodic and semantic are both declarative; with episodic becoming semantic overtime

  - can produce automatic language (combining semantic and procedural)
• key study: Tulivng


  - 6 ppts asked to indulge on episodic LTM retrieval for a series of 4 trials,lasting 80 secs each

  - ppts injected with a small amount of radioactive gold, which was scanned to detect its location in the brain

  - found that during this task, there was activation in the frontal lobe