5. Long term memory - Tulving

What did Tulving believe about LTM?

• He believed that LTM was broken down into different stores or different types of memory.

• (like the WMM suggested for STM.)

What are the TWO different types of memory according to Tulving?

• procedural memory

• declarative memory

What two parts is declarative memory split into?

• Episodic memory

• Semantic memory

What is procedural memory and what is declarative memory?

• procedural memory is the memory of how to do things (brushing your teeth, shoelaces.)

• declarative memory is the memory of meaningful events. (recalling events like Christmas.)

What is episodic and semantic memory? (declarative)

• episodic memory is personal experiences, think of your life in episodes.

• episodic memory is linked to the 5 senses which is why they can be triggered by a sight sound or smell.

• semantic memory is like a built in encyclopaedia of knowledge, made from everything learnt life. (general factual info, capital cities.)

How does the case of Clive Wearing support that there are different types of LTM?

• His procedural memory was intact - he could remember how to do things like play music.

• his declarative memory had cognitive deficits - he could still remember his wife but not his children.

• this is neuropsychological evidence from case studies

• supports that LTM has distinct stores as he could remember things from his procedural memory but not declarative.

How can this theory be critiqued?

• descriptive theory rather than explanatory. - if we say episodic memory is like a diary and semantic is like encyclopaedia, this is describing not explaining.

• it has been suggested that the medial temporal lobe, and hippocampus is used for both episodic and semantic memories. - suggesting there is not much difference between them as thought.

• Episodic and semantic memory may rely on each other, e.g. knowing football is a sport (semantic), recalling what happened during the last football game that you attended is an episodic memory.

• Theory doesn’t acknowledge how stores work together - reductionist and only focuses on individual stores.