types of long term memory

• Tulving (1985) suggested there are 3 LTM stores: episodic, semantic and procedural
• Episodic memory is concerned with personal experiences and is autobiographical memories
• Examples of episodic memories are family holidays or first day of school
• The 3 elements of episodic memories are specific details of the event, the context and the emotion
• You make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories
• semantic memories contain our knowledge of the world. it is factual knowledge of meaningful information about the world which is shared by everyone
• Examples of semantic memories are facts, names, and concepts.
• Semantic memories may be remembering WW1 started in 1914 or concepts in maths or languages
• semantic memories begin as episodic memories because we acquire knowledge based on personal experiences
• you have to make a conscious effort to recall semantic memories
• procedural memory is muscle memory. it is the memory for skills, actions or how things are done
• an example of a procedural memory is knowing how to tie a show lace or how to ride a bike
• procedural memories are typically acquired through repetition and practice
• procedural memories are implicit and do not require conscious thought to perform.
• we are less aware of procedural memories because they become automatic after repeated practice
• a weakness of separate LTM stores is Cases of brain damaged patients are rare and they may not represent the way memory functions in everyone. Clive Wearing’s LTM may function slightly different to most other people. This is a problem because it suggests evidence from case studies such as this may not generalise to everyone reducing the ecological validity.
• a strength of separate LTM stores is The case study of HM supports the idea of separate LTM’s. He could still form new procedural memories but could not form new semantic or episodic memories. For example, he could learn how to draw a figure by looking at its reflection in a mirror but could not remember learning to do this.
• a strength of separate LTM stores is The case of Clive Wearing supports the idea of separate LTM’s. He was a musician who suffered a rare brain infection that gave him brain damage which affected his memory. Some procedural memories he had previously stored such as playing the piano were available to him however, if you asked him if he could play he piano, he would say no, but he could play the piano. He had no memories of personal events that occurred since the infection (episodic.)