Case Studies If Brain Damaged Patients Flashcards
Who is the CSBDP we look at
Henry Molaison
What happened to him?
He had surgery to remove his hippocampus in order to reduce seizures he was having
What effect did this have?
He was unable to fully access his LTM
He was able to remember events such as a holiday when he was 13 but was not able to fully utilise the retrieval process identified by MSMM
What qualitative data did they find
They used a motor programme test where he looked in a mirror and could only see his hand via the mirror and then he had to draw a pattern, they found over time he got quicker (quantitative) and that the drawing for better (qualitative)
Strengths of the HM case study
Gathered lots of quantitative data and qualitative data
Showed that the hippocampus is implicated in memory
Showed evidence for procedural memory
Conducted over many years, allowing them to measure how this effect impacted him over time
Weaknesses of HM case study
Only one person hard to generalise
Difficult to say that if someone damages their hippocampus they will lose memory ability due to the idea of neuroplasticity
