Types of Long-Term Memory

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Types of Long-Term Memory

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One of the earliest and most influential distinctions of long-term memory was proposed by Tulving (1972). He proposed a distinction between episodic, semantic and procedural memory.

Procedural Memory - this is a part of long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things, i.e. memory and motor skills. It does not involve conscious thought (it's unconscious - automatic) and is not declarative. For example, procedural memory would involve knowledge of how to ride a bicycle.

Semantic Memory - this is a part of long-term memory responsible for storing information about the world. This includes knowledge about the meaning of words, as well as general knowledge (such as knowing that London is the capital of England). It involves conscious thought and is declarative.

Episodic Memory - this is a part of long-term memory responsible for storing information about events (i.e. episodes) that we have experienced in our lives. It involves conscious thought and is declarative. An example would be a memory of our first day of school.

Cohen and Squire (1980) drew a distinction between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Procedural knowledge involves "knowing how" to do things. It includes skills, such as "knowing how" to play the piano, ride a bike, tie your shoes, and other motor skills. It does not involve conscious thought and so it is automatic - for example, we brush our teeth with little or no awareness o the skills it involves.

Whereas, declarative knowledge involves "knowing that", i.e. knowing a fact. For example, "knowing that" the capital of England is London, "knowing that" zebras are animals, "knowing that" your mum's birthday is..., etc. Recalling information from declarative memory involves some degree of conscious effort - meaning that information is consciously brought to mind and "declared".

The knowledge that we hold in semantic and episodic memory focuses on "knowing that" something is the case (i.e. is declarative). For example, we might have a semantic memory for "knowing that" Paris is the capital of France, and we might have an episodic memory for "knowing that" we caught the bus to college today.

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Evidence for the distinction between declarative and procedural memory has come from research on patients with amnesia. Typically, amnesic patients have great difficulty in retaining episodic and semantic information following the onset of amnesia. Their memory of events and knowledge acquire before the onset of the condition tends to remain intact, but they can't store new episodic or semantic memories. In other words, it appears that their ability to retain declarative information is impaired.

However, their procedural memory appears to be largely unaffected. They can recall skills they have already learned (such as riding a bike) and even acquire new ones (such as learning to drive).