Types of LTM

• Tulving (1972) proposed Types of LTM -

  • Declarative memory: explicit, choose to recall, consciously recall (knowing that) - episodic + semantic
  • Procedural memory: implicit, don't consciously recall, don't choose to recall (knowing how)
• Episodic Memory = ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives & personal experience, like a diary of memories.

  • specific details: time, place, people
  • context: what happened before/after
  • emotions you felt at the time
• Semantic memory = contains our knowledge (facts, concepts & meanings). Shared by everyone like an encyclopaedia e.g. car has wheels. Appropriate behaviours & these are taught to us in some way. Involves conscious thought & is declarative.
• Procedural memory = how we do things, action, skill-based memories. Without conscious recall & automatically. Acquired through practice & repetition.
• AO3 Types of LTM -

  • Clive Wearing + HM. Both men had severe memory problems. (Clive - viral infection that attacked his brain & HM had brain surgery for epilepsy). Episodic memory in both ways was severely impaired but semantic + procedural intact. Supports idea of different stores for LTM. Case studies - idiographic, can't be generalised low reliability as results cannot be replicated.
• AO3 Tulving's Brain Scan Studies - 6 pps, Tulving, his wife, colleague & 3 others. All pps asked to recall 4 semantic + 4 episodic memories in random order & their brains were scanned. Semantic = left pre-frontal cortex lit up, Episodic = right pre-frontal cortex lit up. Findings have been replicated in many research studies. Supports separate stores for LTM & in different areas. Empirical methodology helps psychology progress as a science.