TYPES OF LONG TERM MEMORY

What are the TYPES of long term memory

episodic, semantic and procedural.

How many types of ltm are there

3

Which types of memory must be recalled consciously

Episodic and semantic memories

Which type of long term memory is recalled unconsciously

Procedural memories

What is EPISODIC memory

Episodic memory describes those memories which have some kind of personal meaning to us, alongside details as to when and how these events occurred, as well as the associated people and places. An example would be the memory of a wedding or the first time meeting a partner.

What is SEMANTIC memory

• Semantic memories describe our memories of the world and the associated knowledge e.g. an understanding of what words, themes and concepts mean. An example would be the ability to use information related to one concept to help us understand another.

What are PROCEDURAL MEMORIES

• Procedural memories describe our memories of 'learned skills', such as swimming or driving.

Bahrick procedure

Procedure

• 392 American participants aged 17–74.

• They were tested on memory for their high school classmates using:
  

  • Photo-recognition of yearbook pictures

  • Free recall of classmates’ names

Bahrick findings

Photo-recognition task

• 90% accuracy after 14 years

• 70–80% accuracy after 48 years

STRENGTH - clive wearing

• He showed how one type of LTM may be impaired but the other types of LTM will be unaffected

What part of clive wearings ltm was impaired

episodic

What part of clive wearings ltm was unaffected

procedural and semantic

What was clive wearing able to do after having part of his ltm impaired

He was still able to skillfully play the piano and understand the concept of music (procedural and semantic) but was unable to remember his wife visiting him 5 minutes previously (episodic).

How is clive wearings case a strength

• It gives strong support to the idea that different areas of the brain are involved in the different types of LTM, and confirms the classification of different types of LTM as separate.

STRENGTH Petersen et al

• Petersen et al. demonstrated that semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex, whilst episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex.

Why is Petersen’s research a strength

• It supports not only the idea that there are different types of LTM, but shows that they each have a different neurological basis because they are recalled from different parts of the brain.

STRENGTH - Tulvig shows that info in the ltm is organised and structured

Research by Tulving suggests that LTM includes different types of memory systems (e.g., episodic memory for events, semantic memory for facts, and procedural memory for skills). This organization helps us retrieve information efficiently and allows us to store and recall information from various areas of our lives (e.g., knowledge, personal experiences, and motor skills).

WEAKNESS - issue of decay

Although LTM has a long duration, decay is still a potential issue.

What is the process of decay

Over time, the strength of some memories can diminish if they are not accessed or reinforced. This decay process can lead to memories becoming less vivid, less detailed, or even entirely forgotten. Cue-dependent forgetting is a related issue, where memories become inaccessible due to a lack of appropriate retrieval cues.

Strength - Bahrick duration of ltm

To investigate how long information can be stored in long-term memory, using real-life meaningful memories.