Tulving (1972)

Tulving (1972)

1. LTM can be divided into 2 stores - episodic and semantic memory.

   • Semantic memories - memories of relationships and how things fit together (e.g. you have siblings or where things are located/what they do.)
   • Episodic memories - memories of particular events and specific info; events, names and dates (e.g. what happened to you and info like your address.)

2. Semantic

   • Time & Place Referencing - does not rely on a place or time (no context.)
   • Encoding - Acoustically.
   • Retrieval - does not occur from cues.
   • Forgetting - Memory traces are strong and less susceptible to transformation.

3. Episodic

   • Time & Place - Relies upon time and place when memory is formed (memory encodes where the event took place and the time frame it occurred in.)
   • Encoding - All forms of encoding; semantic, visual + acoustic (stored in terms of where the event took place.)
   • Retrieval - Can occur from cues.
   • Forgetting - Due to retrieval failure cue, memories can be changed and distorted (13th & 14th Birthday example.)

4. Evaluation

   • SS: Vargha Khadem (1997) - Studied 2 ppl who had hippocampus damage before they had sematic memories. Had poor episodic memories in day to day (TV) but language and knowledge were normal. Shows that episodic and semantic depend on different parts of the brain.
   • CC: Much research comes from brain scans which are credible methods. Trustworthy and objective because neurological scans are checked by more than one reasearcher.
   • OR: Case of HM - HM had serve brain damage loss. HM could not learn facts (semantic) and unable to remember events (episodic.) He drew a star through a mirror on many occasions but couldn't remember he did but knew how to do it = could form new procedural memory. Tulving's initial theory was insufficient.
   • A: EWT - Episodic memories can be retrieved using cues attached at the time. In order to gain a detailed EWT, police should use cues such as reconstructions and going back to the crime scene.
   • CC: Case study/research support can be seen as ungeneralisable - CS's only have one person or small group (usually with unique cases.) May not show how memory works in the whole population.