Types of Long-term Memory (AQA A Level Psychology)

Episodic, semantic & procedural

• Long-term memory consists of three stores

  • Episodic

  • Semantic

  • Procedural

Episodic memory

• Episodic memories (EM) recall events or "episodes" in the life of a person

• This involves personal events and experiences that have happened to an individual

• EM are time-stamped and often linked to a specific location, e.g.

  • 'When I was five years old I broke my collar-bone falling from a tree in my grandma's garden'

• Emotions felt at the time of the event may also be remembered, e.g.

  • 'I remember feeling frightened when I fell and then I cried until my grandma gave me an ice lolly: I felt fine after that!'

• The wider context of the event may also be part of the memory: relatives that were there, what clothing was worn, the weather, e.g.

  • welcoming home a new pet as a child

  • visiting a friend in hospital last week

  • what was eaten for dinner last night

Semantic memory

• The semantic memory store recalls memories of facts and the meaning of the world around us

• Semantic memories are not time-stamped

• The memories are often not personal, e.g.

  • knowing that the capital city of France is Paris

  • knowing that daffodils are yellow

  • knowing that 2 x 10 = 20

Procedural memory

• Procedural memories store how to carry out certain tasks or skills

• Little conscious thought is required to recall these memories

• The memory of the task or skill is formed from lots of practice and rehearsal, e.g.

  • riding a bike

  • tying a shoelace

  • driving a car

Evaluation

Strengths

• There are supporting studies which give evidence for the idea of different memory stores for LTM:

  • The case study of HM:

    • HM suffered from epilepsy and underwent brain surgery to correct this, removing his hippocampus

    • The findings show that episodic memory was affected by brain damage, however semantic memory and procedural memory were not

  • The case study of Clive Wearing who contracted a virus of the brain, shows that he was able to retain procedural memory (e.g. he could remember how to play the piano) but he did not retain episodic memories (e.g. he could not remember learning to play the piano)

• Brain scans indicate that each type of LTM may be stored in different areas of the brain

  • Episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus

  • Semantic memory is associated with the temporal lobe

  • Procedural memory is associated with the cerebellum

  • This clinical evidence is high in reliability as it is objective i.e. scientific

Limitations

• Case studies cannot be generalised beyond their immediate subject to the general population

  • This weakens their use as supporting evidence for separate LTM stores as a sample of one participant cannot come near to being representative of a wider population

• There are some cross-overs between episodic and semantic memories e.g. learning French at school is both semantic (understanding the language) and episodic (time-stamped to school experience)

  • This suggests that LTM (three separate stores) is actually more complex