3. Types of long term memory

what is episodic memory?

• suggested by Tulving.

• Individual’s own autobiographical record of things that have happened to them. our memories of our experiences.

• info about WHAT, WHERE & WHY?

• It allows us to make predictions about what will happen in the future

• episodic memories are not exact replications- constructed and are prone to errors and illusions- stereotypes, subjective interpretations, missing out/adding in info

• e.g. birthday party and wedding

what is semantic memory?

• structured record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world that we have acquired- general knowledge

• independent of personal experience and time and place in which it was acquired

• enormous amount of info in semantic memory and it is continuously added to

• e.g. capital cities, foods, understanding maths

what is procedural memory?

• unconcious memory of skills and how to do things- particularly use of objects or body movements (e.g. motor movements/skills)

• composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviours that are so deeply embedded that we are no longer aware of them.

• these are learned abilities- acquired through repetition and practice until they require little to no effort and can be performed accurately.

• e.g. riding a bike, tying a shoelace

LTM evaluation- biological evidence

P- evidence- when a person uses episodic memory, they use a different region of the brain than when they use semantic memory

e- Tulving injected himself, wife + 4 more with radioactive gold that could be used to track brain blood flow with a scanner. He scanned each person’s brain whilat they thought about historical facts or childhood experiences

e- in 3/6 ps- historical facts- blood to BACK, childhood experiences- blood to FRONT

l- suggests biological basis for diff types of LTM

LTM evaluation- case study

p- case study research into ps with brain damage has supported tripartite division

e- clive wearing- brain damage to hippocampus. unable to store or record new episodic or semantic info for over a few secs. still could read, write, play piano- procedural

e- research into people with Huntingdon’s disease- HD patients had no problem learning new facts + knowledge- but had severe problmes learning new motor skills.

l- strong indication that damage to specific areas of the brain leaves patients with deficits in 1+ types of LTM, whilst leaving other stores intact- offers support for biological basis of separate stores.

LTM evaluation- challenging research

p- critics challenge need to differentiate between some types of LTM

e- Cohen and Squire- suggest that semantic and episodic memory should be understood as one store of ‘declarative memory’. Research by Kan et al- interdependence between episodic and semantic memory-

e- whether there are 2 or 3 types of LTM may be helpful to help people recover their cognitive functions e.g. strokes- being able to identify diff aspects of LTM had led to psycholgists targetting specific types to make people’s lives better . Belleville et al- episodic memory could be improved with training in older patients with cognitive impairements

‘l- tripartitie divison has tangible benefits for people- useful- BUT is it accurate?