Types of Long Term Memory

What does ‘declarative memory’ mean?

Can be put into words

What does ‘explicit memory’ mean?

Can be consciously recalled

What does ‘non-declarative memory’ mean?

Difficult to put into words

What does ‘implicit memory’ mean?

Can’t be consciously recalled

What are the 3 types of long term memory?

• Semantic

• Episodic

• Procedural

Semantic memory:

Facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the world eg a bike has two wheels

Episodic memory:

Memory of experiences and specific events eg the last time I rode I…

Procedural memory:

Unconscious memory of skills also known as muscle memory eg skill of riding a bike

What 2 types of long term memory are declarative and explicit?

• Semantic

• Episodic

What type of long term memory is non-declarative and implicit?

• Procedural

Long term memory and forgetting…

Episodic = easiest memories to forget

Semantic = resistant to forgetting

Procedural = very resistant to forgetting

Long term memory and time…

Episodic = time stamped, stored with reference to time and place

Semantic = may not recall when learnt/encoded (not time stamped)

Procedural = often learnt in childhood (not time stamped)

*can add more from the table

AO3 - Vargha-Khadem et al (1997)

Investigated 3 young patients who had damage to their hippocampus but avoided significant damage to the nearby parahippocampal cortices. It was found all 3 had very significant episodic amnesia, however all are able to attend school, speak and can learn and recall factual (semantic) information at an ability level just below average for their age. Suggests that semantic memory is less dependent on the hippocampus than episodic memory and so is biological evidence that semantic and episodic memories are distinct processes using different brain regions

AO3 - Case study of Clive Wearing

Wearing has retrograde amnesia so cannot remember his musical education (episodic) however remembers facts about his life (semantic). He can also play the piano (procedural). Is unable to encode new episodic or semantic memories due to also having anterograde amnesia, but under experimental conditions he is able to gain new procedural memories via repetition. Suggests semantic, episodic and procedural memory exist as separate processes, as Wearing lacks episodic completely, can recall but not encode semantic memories and his procedural memory is functional. Likely related to the damaged area of Wearing’s brain

AO3 - Use of ideographic research…

…such as Clive Wearing allows researchers to study memory in ways that would be impossible experimentally. But there are problems generalising the findings of these clinical case studies with one or few individuals, to explain how memory works in the wider population. There could be other unknown issues unique to that individual that can explain the behaviour

AO3 - Real world application

Use of modern cognitive neuroscience brain scanning techniques, like Tulving, has allowed researchers to study the brain and memory scientifically. FMRI’s identify types of memory are associated with particular brain areas. Allowed ideas gained by ideographic case studies to be studied via nomothetic methods, on larger and healthy samples allowing generalisations to be made

AO3 - Similarity between types of long term memory suggests they not be truly distinct..

Episodic and semantic memories are both declarative, and episodic become semantic over time. Also there is a link between semantic and procedural, as we are able to produce automatic language, talking fluently using semantic concepts, without having to consciously recall the details of each semantic idea