Types of LTM

Who proposed the idea there are 3 types of LTM? AO1

Tulving

Episodic memory AO1

• Allows us to recall past events from our lives & 'travel back in time’

• Eg remembering your 6th birthday party

• Declarative (easy to put into words) & requires a conscious effort to recall

• Associated with pre-frontal cortex

Semantic memory AO1

• General knowledge & facts about the world around us

• Eg knowing Paris is the capital of France

• Declarative & requires a conscious effort to recall

• Associated with temporal lobe

Procedural memory AO1

• Learned skills & actions

• Eg remembering how to ride a bike

• Non-declarative & unconscious effort to recall

• Associated with motor cortex

Types of LTM strengths AO3

• P - brain scan support

• E - Tulving conducted PET scans on participants whilst they performed tasks involving either recalling personal experiences (episodic memory) or retrieving general knowledge (semantic memory) while their brain activity was recorded. He found that different regions of the prefrontal cortex were activated depending on the type of memory being used. Specifically, episodic memory retrieval was associated with the right prefrontal cortex, whereas semantic memory retrieval was linked to the left prefrontal cortex. PET scans are objective and scientific research methods compared to case studies, meaning that findings are high in internal validity This demonstrates a clear distinction between different types of LTM, rather than it being a unitary store.

• T - increases scientific credibility providing strong evidence of different types of LTM

• P - case study support

• E - Clive Wearing suffered from amnesia. His episodic memory was severlely impaired, meaning he could not recall any past experiences or events. However, his procedural memory remains intact as he is still able to play the piano and conduct music to a high standard, despite having no conscious memory of learning these skills.

• T - provides strong evidence for separate types of long-term memory, as it shows a clear dissociation between episodic and procedural memory. If LTM were a single, unitary store, all types of memory should be equally affected by brain damage. Instead, Clive Wearing’s case shows that different types of LTM can be independently impaired or preserved. Therefore, this increases the validity of the different types of LTM, challenging the MSM which suggests that it is one unitary store.

Types of LTM limitations AO3

• P - reliance on case studies

• E - case studies are in the depth studies of individuals/small groups over a long period of time. However, case studies are very subjective because they involve studying unique individuals with highly unusual brain damage. As a result, it is difficult to apply findings to the wider population, since most people do not have similar neurological conditions. In addition, case studies lack reliability because they cannot be replicated. The exact pattern of brain damage in HM or Clive Wearing cannot be ethically reproduced in other participants, meaning researchers cannot verify whether the same memory impairments would consistently occur in other cases. Furthermore, there are likely confounding variables that cannot be controlled in case studies, such as the extent of the brain damage, medication & prior cognitive ability. This makes it difficult to determine whether observed memory impairments are truly due to damage to specific memory systems or influenced by other variables.

• T - although case studies provide rich, detailed evidence for different types of LTM, they lack scientific credibility as a RM which reduces the validity.

• P - episodic & semantic memory may overlap

• E - Episodic memory refers to personal past experiences, while semantic memory involves general knowledge and facts. However, in real life these two types are often interconnected and difficult to separate clearly. For example, remembering your first day at school (episodic) may also involve factual knowledge such as the name of the school or teacher (semantic). This crossover suggests that episodic and semantic memory may not be fully independent systems, but instead interact and transform into each other over time.

• T - overlap between episodic and semantic memory challenges the idea that long-term memory is neatly divided into separate systems, weakening the explanation provided by the LTM types model. Suggests that Tulving’s explanation may be overly simplistic & LTM is actually more complex