This document includes revision notes for types of long term memory for AQA A level psychology for the topic of memory in paper 1. All content follows the AQA specification.
Tulving: MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible. Proposed there are 3 LTM
stores containing different types of information:
Episodic memory: Recall events from our lives.
- Time-stamped i.e. you remember when they happened.
- Memory of an event includes several elements e.g. people, places.
- Make a conscious (explicit) effort to recall episodic memories. May do this quickly
but are aware you are searching for a memory.
Semantic memory: Memories that relate to knowledge of the world - conscious effort.
- Not time-stamped, don’t remember where we first learned knowledge of the world.
Procedural memory: Our memory for actions, skills.
- Recall these memories without conscious (implicit) effort, e.g. Driving a car.
Clive Wearing
- Suffers from amnesia, parts of his brain (hippocampus) have been damaged.
- Before he was a world class musician, still plays the piano but can’t remember his
musical education.
- Remembers aspects of his life like his children, but not their faces.
LTM > Procedural memory (implicit)
LTM > Declarative memory (explicit) > episodic and semantic memory
* Declarative/nondeclarative memories argued by Cohen and Squire.
STRENGTH: Clinical Evidence
P: Case Studies of HM and Clive Wearing are relevant.
E: Episodic memory was impaired due to amnesia - difficulty recalling past events. Semantic
and procedural memory was intact. This supports Tulving.
J: Different memory stores in the LTM i.e. one can be damaged but the other can be
unaffected, shows these memory stores are separate, located in different areas in the brain.
STRENGTH: Neuroimaging Evidence
P: Tulving et al.'s experiment, participants had to perform various memory tasks whilst their
brains were scanned using a PET scanner.
E: Semantic memories were recalled from the left PFC. Episodic memories were recalled
from the right PFC.
J: Proves there are different types of LTM.
LIMITATION: Issues with Clinical Evidence
P: Case studies have poor control over variables.
E: Tend to be done on small samples and look at very unique cases.
J: Poor control reduces validity. Small and unique samples lack generalisability.
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