Topic 2 – Cognitive Psychology Lesson six: Explanation of Long Term Memory – episodic and semantic memory Tulving, 1972)

Tulving (1972) Episodic and semantic memory This is the third model of memory we will look at Tulving proposed that LTM memory was divided into two memory stores: episodic and semantic memory Each store is qualitatively different in terms of the nature of stored memories, time referencing, associations between memories, and the nature of retrieving/recalling information What is semantic? What is episodic?

Nature of semantic and episodic memory Semantic memory: Examples? Tulving – mental encyclopaedia Words, facts, rules Meanings and concepts organises as a body of knowledge Memories associated with other facts that link the concepts together E.g. school and learning Your own examples? These links are based on memories of facts that have been leaned at some earlier time June follows may on the calendar Episodic: Tulving – mental diary Receives and stores information about experiences of events that occur at a time in our life Linked to time and context

Time referencing: Memories about events that are linked to the time in which they occurred Factual information can be remembered without reference to when it was learned Which fact relates to episodic and sematic memory? Spatial referencing: Memories are fragmentary. We can piece together factual information that had been learned at different times. Memories are continuous as we experience an event in a temporal frame of reference Retrieval: Memory is dependent on the context in which the event was learned. This context aids the retrieval of the memory Memory is not dependent on the context therefore retrieval of the memories is not context dependent

Are the stores interrelated? Is one store dependent on the other? Is one independent? Examples of semantic memory Examples of episodic memory

Which memories are semantic or episodic? Reminiscing about your first kiss Knowing how to use scissors Recalling your first day of school Remembering what a dog is Knowing your lab partner in college chemistry class Knowing how to use the phone Recalling the guests at your best friend’s 18th birthday party Knowing that grass is green

Evaluation Supporting evidence suggests the disassociation between sematic and episodic memory Suggests one store can be affected without affecting the other Ostergaard (1987) Summarise and explain how it supports Tulving’s theory regarding semantic and episodic KF case study (not KC!) Summarise and explain how it supports Criticise supporting evidence (using individual differences box)

Application – why is this explanation useful? Pg. 101 –wider issues and debates Cue dependent recall Kenealy (1997) or Godden and Baddeley (1975) How can this be useful?

Reductionism pg. 102 Case studies such as HM and Clive Wearing highlight limitations Why? Also page 102 (second to last paragraph) Can you identify the problem and relate it to reductionism?

H/W task One strength and one weakness (4 marks) Choose the ‘strongest’ evaluation points P C Summary of difference between episodic and semantic – table Episodic Semantic Example Time referencing Retrieval