Tulving's Gold Study

• Aim

  To investigate if the recall of episodic and semantic memories produced different blood flow patterns in the brain
• Method

  6 participants were injected with radioactive gold. Used a repeated measures design with 4 episodic and 4 semantic memory trials. Monitored blood flow using a PET scan
• Results

  There was different blood flow patterns in 3 of the participants. Semantic memories produced greater blood flow in the posterior cortexes, whilst episodic memories produced greater blood flow in the anterior cortexes
• Conclusion


  Episodic and semantic memories are localised in different areas of the brain
• Strength


  Evidence from brain scans is difficult to fake, producing unbiased evidence
• Weakness


  The data was inconclusive as differences were only seen in half of the participants