Long-Term Memory

• describe episodic memory

  • type of explicit memory
  • include memories of personal experience
  • strength is determined by the strength of the emotions experienced
• describe semantic memory

  • type of explicit memory
  • includes memory for knowledge, facts, concepts and meanings about the world
• describe procedural memory

  • type of implicit memory
  • includes memory of how to perform certain tasks, actions or skills
• strengths of LTM (1)

  • Brain scans provide support for the different types of LTM. Research has shown that different parts of the brain are active when accessing episodic, semantic and procedural memory. Episodic memory has been associated with the hippocampus and temporal lobe; semantic memory is also associated with the temporal lobe; and procedural memory is associated with the cerebellum and motor cortex. Brain scan research suggests that different brain regions are responsible for the different types of LTM, supporting the idea that our LTM is made up of at least three distinct categories.
• strengths of LTM (2)

  • Patient HM suffered from severe epilepsy and underwent surgery. His STM remained intact; however, he was unable to transfer certain types of information to his LTM. Milner discovered that HM was able to learn procedural (implicit) tasks, but not episodic or semantic (explicit) information. Hm was able to learn a mirror-tracing task however, he had no knowledge of ever previously completing the mirror‐tracing task. Therefore, HM was able to demonstrate his procedural memory through implicit behaviour, despite being unable to recall his experience explicitly.
• strength of LTM (3)

  • The study of LTM adopts both a nomothetic and an idiographic approach since it attempts to generate universal laws of cognitive processes including our different types of long‐term memories (episodic, semantic and procedural), but also uses case studies, such as in the case of Patient HM and Clive Wearing
• limitations of LTM

  • The case studies are examples of socially sensitive research, which is why HM’s identity was hidden from all but the researchers until his death in 2008. It could be argued that the same protection should have been extended to Clive Wearing.
  • The scientific principles are adopted to a large extent, with the investigation of different types of long‐term memories when conducted in a laboratory, but case studies often lack control due to their nature.