Types of LTM

Cards (8)

  • 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