Why did Tulving create this model?

The multi-store memory model is too simplistic and ridged. There are three Long Term Memory stores rather than just one which all contain different information

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Episodic Memory

The ability to recall event from our lives. For example last visit to the dentist, the last music concert you went to, what you had for breakfast this morning.

- These memories are complex because:

They are time stamped - memories are called based on when they happened.

An episode will include several elements - people, places, objects and events.

You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories - this can take some time and you are aware that you are searching for an existing memory.

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Semantic Memory

Contains knowledge of the world, Many facts are contained in the semantic memory.The stored knowledge could be about anything, for example applying to university, what an orange tastes like, the meaning of words.

- These memories are complex because:

Understanding of key concepts.

These memories are not time stamped.

Semantic memories are constantly being added to.

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Procedural Memory

Memory for actions, skills or how to do things. For example driving a car or riding a horse.

- These memories are complex because:

These kinds of memories can be recalled without conscious awareness or too much effort.

The ability to do such things eventually relies on procedural memory.

Some of the actions or skills that are processed by procedural memory can sometimes be difficult to explain to others. E.g. explaining to someone else how to drive, or how to ride a horse.

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Evaluation of Tulving's Long Term Memory Store

A strength of Tulving's memory model is clinical evidence from Clive Wearing. Clive developed Amnesia after suffering from a serious bacterial infection. He has lost the ability to form new long term memory – particularly episodic memories. His procedural and semantic memory is in tact – he knows he loves his wife and knows that he is a musician and can still play the piano. This supports Tulving’s assumption that there are different long term memory stores – Clive lost 1 but 3 remain unaffected. It supports the contention that different memory stores exist and that they also exist in different parts of the brain.

Another strength of Tulving's memory model is supporting research from neuroimaging. Tulving (1994) – participants performed various memory tasks while their brains were being scanned using a PET scanner. He found that the episodic and semantic memories were recalled from the pre-frontal cortex. Episodic were recalled from the right pre-frontal cortex and semantic memories were recalled from the left. These findings give a physical reality to Tulving’ s original assumptions about the different long term memory stores – the assumption has moved from hypothetical to empirical and this is the basis to science. Therefore, this means that Tulving's memory model has high levels of validity.