Case Studies Flashcards
What are Case Studies?
Case studies are A process or record of research into the development of a particular person, group, or situation over a period of time.Can understand cognitive function
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What is Clive Wearing case study?
Clive Wearing received brain damage to his hippocampus after a viral infection.
Clive Wearing suffered long-term memory impairment following encephalitis due to herpes , but his short-term store remained unaffected.
Clive Wearing received brain damage to his hippocampus after encephalitis. Clive Wearing could still use his STM to remember things for about 20 seconds but then he would forget everything – he could not “make new memories”. The Multi Store Model can be applied to his case, because it suggests an inability to rehearse information into LTM.
Retrograde amnesia- Amnesia for past memories. Remembered he had children, remembered his current wife and that he was previously married. Clive Wearing is useful for understanding memory because his experience can be applied to Multi-store model of memory as it criticises idea that Long-term memory is a completely unitary store as he could play piano but not remember events or experiences, he can also be applied to types of long-term memory and how he used a type of semantic LTM known as procedural to continue to remember how to play piano.
Suggests STM Capacity is below 30 seconds
Encephalitis may affect memory and can result in antegrade and retrograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia is more common than antegrade amnesia, could suggest that LTM may be more easily damaged or impaired than STM.
What is KF case study?
KF Case study
* Suffered parietal lobe damage due to accident, damaged STM, intact LTM.
* Shallice and Warrington (1974) found that KF had one digit span. Impaired verbal memory, visual memory still intact.
* Supports 2 slave systems- Visuo-spatial sketchpad unaffected and phenological store damaged
* Poor STM for auditory info and good LTM for visual info
KF is useful for understanding memory because… he provides evidence for working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch 1976) as he can do visual tasks but not verbal due to impaired phenological store.
Parietal lobe should be further investigated as the STM was damaged/impaired alongside that damage, which can suggest that parietal lobe controls short-term memory.
Verbal memory affects digit span as the articulatory process cannot occur if the phenological store is damaged, leading to less rehearsal.
What is KC case study?
KC
Further understanding comes from KC (1951-2014) supports semantic memory. He suffered episodic memory impairment due to motorcycle accident resulting in difficulty to form or recall new events in his life (episodic memory). Recollection of factual information was still intact as he recalled facts and knowledge, this supports distinction of two LTM stores.
KC is useful for understanding memory because… he supports types of LTM (Tulving 1972) suggests that there’s two separate stores of LTM as he can recall words/definitions but not form or recall memory of events and experiences.
KC is useful for understanding memory because… he supports types of LTM (Tulving 1972) suggests that there’s two separate stores of LTM as he can recall words/definitions but not form or recall memory of events and experiences.
KC could still perform tasks or skills, which supports Tulving (1985) new type of semantic memory (procedural memory)
Suffered Hippocampal damage, further supports idea that memory is influenced and controlled by hippocampus.
What is HM case study?
Hippocampus removed
Penfield + Milner diagnosed with antegrade amnesia (Inability to remember events from 9months- 11 years) and antegrade amnesia (Inability to form new memories)
Brenda Milner, Simple recall task, tested ability to recall events from childhood, and adulthood events before and after operation. Tested short-term Long-term memory recall
Tested with Maze tasks, HM traced correct route out of maze with finger, tested multiple times to see if he’d remember how to escape despite not remembering doing task
1962, Milner asked HM to copy five-pointed star using template, HM only saw reflection of star and hand in memory.
Results- Forgets all new experiences in 30’s but could remember info before age 16
Good knowledge of past events however failed to identify year, president and own age.
In 1982, failed to recognise pictures of himself taken in 1966
Acquired some knowledge after investigation (What astronaut is and that a man named Kennedy was assassinated)
Over 252 attempts on maze task, no improvement, however consistent improvement in star task
Conclusion- Shows clear STM+LTM distinction
Hippocampus plays role in transforming short-term memories into Long-term memories due to hippocampus removal
Describe and Evaluate Quantitative data
Quantitative data
Quantitative data is numerical data (Statistics, Percentages etc).
Quantitative data is useful to gather because It’s objective, it cannot be debated and it’s easy to statistically analyse however quantitative data is limited because… It lacks detail, and can sometimes be manipulated by researcher
Describe and Evaluate Qualitative data
Qualitative data
Qualitative data is words, paragraphs, sentences and explanations.
Can be done in Numerous ways
Follows inductive approach (solving a research question by deducting research info)
Qualitative data is useful to gather because… It has detail and can give unique ideas such as real-life experiences and/or opinions, descriptive info. Can be used in investigating major problems however qualitative data is limited because It may be subjectively analysed and it is time consuming to collect
