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Types of long term memory (Episodic memories (Episodic memories are…
Types of long term memory
In 1985, Tulving argued that the multi-store model was reductionist as he believed that there were actually three types of long term memory, therefore making it impossible to be simply one unitary store.
The three types of long term memory are:
-Episodic memories
-Semantic memories
-Procedural memories
All three types of memory are share some similarities. For example, they are all types of long term memory and their stores and continually be added to throughout our lives.
The three types of long term memory do however differ the the type of information that is stored.
Semantic and episodic memories share the fact that they require conscious effort to be recalled and the strength of these memories is associated with emotions felt during the time of coding.
Semantic and procedural memories share the fact that they are not time stamped.
Episodic memories
Episodic memories are memories of events throughout our life. Examples include:
-First day at 6th form
-First date
-What you watched on TV the previous evening
-An argument you had with your friend last night
Episodic memories are time stamped (we can recall when they happened)
These memories require conscious effort to be recalled. This may only take a few seconds but an individual will be consciously aware that they are searching for the memory.
The strength of an episodic memory is associated with emotions felt during the time of coding.
One episodic memory will contain several elements (people, places and objects)
Semantic memories
Semantic memories are memories of facts about the world and our own knowledge of what words and concepts mean. Examples include:
-Where the Eiffel Tower is
-Remembering your address
-Recalling the words to a song
Semantic memories are not time stamped (we cannot recall when they took place)
The strength of the memory is associated with emotions felt during the time of coding.
They require conscious effort to be recalled
Semantic memories can be continually added to each time we learn something knew.
Procedural memories
They are not time stamped (we cannot remember when they took place)
They do not require conscious effort to be recalled
Procedural memories are memories of actions, skills and how to do things. Examples include:
-How to ride a bike
-How to book a table at a restaurant
-How to use a calculator on your phone
These memories are often described as being 'non-declarative' because although they are easy to perform (most of us know how to ride a bike), the actions can be difficult to describe to another individual.
AO3: Evaluation
Strength: Support from the case study of Clive Wearing
Clive Wearing is a patient with one of the worst cases of amnesia in the word (only a 7 second memory). He largely struggles with episodic memories, which is evident when he was unable that his sister had been to visit him only two minutes after she left his home.
Wearing was able to:
Shave and brush his teeth (procedural memories)
Play the piano (procedural memories)
Recall his childhood telephone number (semantic memory)
-This increases the external validity of research into the three types of long term memory as this can be applied to real life patients. The internal validity is also increased because Wearing supports the idea that long term memory has to be more than one unitary store (he could do procedural memories but not episodic).
-Challenge:
This study does however lack population validity, and therefore generalisability, because this is one very specific example of a patient with amnesia. As a result, it is not necessarily representative.
Strength: Research support from Tulving
Tulving ordered his participants to complete a series of tasks whilst having a PET scan. He found that both semantic and episodic memories were recalled from the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, however episodic memories were specifically recalled from the right pre-frontal cortex and semantic memories were specifically recalled from the left pre-frontal cortex.
-This supports the idea that semantic and episodic memories are two separate unitary stores located in different parts of the brain. As a result, the internal validity is increased as well as the scientific credibility (Tulving has tested this using PET scans).
-Challenge:
The population validity is extremely limited because not only did Tulving use a sample of only 6 participants, but three of the six consisted of himself, his wife and his colleague. This increases the likelihood of researcher bias being resent and decreases the generalisability.
Weakness: Counter evidence
Cohen and Squire suggested that the long term memory only consisted of two stores, not three. They believed that episodic and semantic memories were stored in one 'declarative' store because they can be consciously recalled. Procedural memories are arguably stored separately as 'non-declarative' memories as they cannot be consciously recalled.
-This decreases the internal validity because support is not provided for evidence of there being three stores in the long term memory.
-Challenge:
This counter evidence lacks scientific credibility as nothing has actually been scientifically tested to reach this conclusion.