Types of Long Term Memory

1. Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) hypothesize that people store not only information but also learning strategies in long-term memory for easy access. This capacity, which Ericsson and Kintsch call long-term working memory, accounts for the extraordinary skills of experts (such as medical diagnosticians) who must match current information with a vast array of patterns held in their long-term memories.

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2. Episodic memory is our memory of personal experiences, a mental movie of things we saw or heard. When you remember what you had for dinner last night or what happened at your high school prom, you are recalling information stored in your long-term episodic memory. Information in episodic memory is stored in the form of images that are organized on the basis of when and where events happened. Episodic memory contains images of experiences organized by when and where they happened. Episodic memories are often difficult to retrieve, because most episodes in our lives are repeated so often that later episodes get mixed up in memory with earlier ones, unless something happens during the episode to make it especially memorable. For example, few people remember what they had for lunch a week ago, much less years ago. However, there is a phenomenon called flashbulb memory in which the occurrence of an important event fixes mainly visual and auditory memories in a person's mind. For example, people who happened to be eating breakfast at the moment they first heard about the attack on the World Trade Center or about Princess Diana's death may well remember that particular meal (and other trivial aspects of the setting) forever.
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3. Long-term semantic memory (or declarative memory) contains the facts and generalized information that we know; concepts, principles, or rules and how to use them; and our problem-solving skills and learning strategies. Information in semantic memory is organized in the form of networks of ideas. It is mentally organized in networks of connected ideas or relationships called schemata (singular: schema). A schema is like an outline, with different concepts or ideas grouped under larger categories. Various aspects of schemata may be related by series of propositions, or relationships.
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4. Procedural memory (Information in procedural memory is stored as a complex of stimulus-response pairings) is the ability to recall how to do something, especially a physical task. This type of memory is apparently stored in a series of stimulus-response pairings. For example, even if you have not ridden a bicycle for a long time, as soon as you get on one, the stimuli begin to evoke responses. When the bike leans to the left (a stimulus), you "instinctively" shift your weight to the right to maintain balance (a response). Other examples of procedural memory include handwriting, typing, and running skills. Neurological studies show that procedural memories are stored in a different part of the brain than are semantic and episodic memories; procedural memories are stored in the cerebellum, whereas semantic and episodic memories are stored in the cerebral cortex.

Category: Neurology notes , Physiology Notes