Psychology: Memory - Types of long-term memory

Episodic memory

• Stores events from our lives

• Complex, they are time-stamped, involve several elements (people, places, objects etc.) and you have to make a conscious effort to recall

Semantic memory

• Stores our knowledge of the world

• Encyclopaedia and dictionary e.g. includes knowledge of the taste of an orange, definition if words

• Not time stamped

• Less personal than episodic and is more about facts and knowledge

Procedural memory

• Stores memories for actions ans skills

• Memories of how we do things e.g. drive a car

• Recall occurs without effort because they have become automatic

Strength - Case study evidence of different types

• Clinical studies of amnesia (HM and Clive Wearing) showed both had difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts (episodic)

• But semantic memories were relatively unaffected and procedural memories were also intact e.g. Clive could play piano

• Supports view of different memory stores because one can be damaged but others unaffected

• However the researchers lack control, they don't know anything about the persons memory before damage therefore studies are limited

Limitation - conflicting findings about types of LTM and brain areas

• Buckner and Petersen reviewed findings and concluded that semantic memory is located in the left prefrontal cortex and episodic in the right

• Other studies say semantic is in the right and episodic is in the left

• Challenges neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreements on where each type is located

Strength - helping people with memory problems

• Memory loss in old age is more common in episodic memory

• Belleville et al. devised an intervention for older people targeting episodic memory, improving their memory compared to the control group

• Shows that distinguishing the different types enables specific treatments to be developed