Summary
Summary Types of long-term memory
Looks at the episodic, semantic and procedural memory, defining key terms and looking at key studies.
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Types of Long-Term MemoryMemory
Key Names
Endel Tulving (1985)
Key Words
Episodic Memory
Episodic Memory –
A long-term memory Refers to our ability to recall events from our lives, like a diary. These memories are also time-stamped
store for personal meaning you remember when specific events happened roughly. Also, memories are made up of more
than a single element, with the elements interwoven to produce a single memory. Thirdly, you have to
events.
make a conscious effort to recall these episodic memories.
Semantic Memory – Semantic Memory
A long-term memory Stores our knowledge of the world, including fats, but only in the broadest possible sense. Your
store for our knowledge semantic memory contains the knowledge of concepts and skills. These memories are not time-
of the world. stamped, it is less personal and more about facts we all share, although it is about more than
memories, and is constantly being added to.
Procedural Memory –
Procedural Memory
A long-term memory
store for our knowledge This is our memory of actions, or skills, how we do things. We can recall things without actively being
of how to do things. aware of it without a great deal of effort. These are hard to explain these to someone else. The task of
explaining how to do things may be harder than actually doing it.
Evaluation
Clinical evidence – HM (Henry Molaison) and Clive Wearing both had impaired episodic memory, as a
result of amnesia, but their semantic memories remained intact, they both continued to understand the
meanings of words and concepts. Procedural memory was also unaffected in the two, with both
knowing still how to tie their shoelaces, walk and speak and Clive Wearing even still being able to read
music, sing and play the piano. This supports Tulving’s ideas of different memory stores in the LTM.
Neuroimaging evidence – Tulving et al. (1994) got their participants to perform various memory tasks
while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. Episodic and semantic memories were recalled
from the prefrontal cortex, with the left being involved in the recall of semantic memories, while the righ
was involved in the recall of episodic memories. This shows that there is a physical reality to the
different types of LTM. The results of this study have been confirmed in many later research studies,
proving its validity.
Real-life applications – Belleville et al. (2006) demonstrated that episodic memories could be
improved in older people who have mild cognitive impairment. The trained participants performed bette
on tests of episodic memory after training than a control group. This highlights the benefits of being
able to distinguish between types of LTM, it enables specific treatments to be developed.
Three types of LTM or two? – Cohen and Squire (1980) disagree with Tulving’s division of LTM into
three types. They accept that procedural memories represent one type of LTM but argue that episodic
and semantic are stored together in one LTM store called declarative memory. These are memories
that must be consciously recalled.
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