Long Term Memory

Long Term Memory

1. Procedural

   • Is the memory for how we do things, like actions and skills
   • These are recalled without much conscious effort
   • We might have trouble explaining these skills, and the task becomes more difficult

2. Semantic

   • Is the knowledge of the world and facts
     • Eg; Meaning of words, taste of an orange, how to apply to uni
   • Is less personal and more factual
   • Contains immense collection of material, which is constantly added to.

3. Episodic

   • Is the ability to recall events from our lives
   • The events are time stamped - we remember when they happened
   • Each memory includes several elements - people, places objects etc. They interlink to produce a memory
   • A conscious effort is required to recall the memory

4. Evaluation

   • Clinical Evidence (strength)
     • Problems with clinical evidence (limitation)
       • Clinical studies, like the studies on CW and HM lack control of all possible variables
     • Episodic memory in Henry Molaison and Clive Wearing was impaired as a result of amnesia.
       • They had difficulty recalling events of their lives but their Semantic Memory was unaffected, they understood words.
       • HM could not recall stroking a Dog 30 mins earlier but knew what a Dog was
       • Their Procedural memory was unaffected.
         • CW could still sing and play the piano
         • They could walk, talk, tie a shoelace
     • One store could be damaged whilst the others unaffected, supporting the theory of different stores
   • Neuroimaging evidence (strength)
     • Tufling got participants to perform memory tasks while their brain was being scanned
     • Episodic Memory is recalled from the Right Prefrontal Cortex
     • Semantic Memory is recalled from the Left Prefrontal Cortex
     • So this supports the reality of the different types of LTM
   • Real life applications
     • Belleville demonstrated Episodic Memory could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment
       • Episodic memory is the most affected by cognitive impairment
         • This highlights the benefits of being able to distinguish between the types of LTM as it enables specific treatments to be devloped
       • Trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory than a control group
   • 3 types of LTM or 2? (other explanation)
     • Cohen and Squire argue Episodic and Semantic memories are stored in 1 store
     • This is called 'Declaritive memory', which is memories that can be recalled
       • They agree with Procedural memories, which they called 'Non Declaritive Memory'