Contemporary Study Flashcards
What is the contemporary study in cognitive psychology
Schmolck (2002)
What was the aim of Schmolck (2002)?
To investigate the effect of specific brain damage on semantic memory using CSBDP compared to a ‘control’ group of normal pp
Why was this a useful aim to consider
Could identity which regions of the brain are associated with semantic memory potentially leading to treatments
Who were Schmolcks pp
6 amnesia patients (including HM)
Who had damage to medial temporal lobe, hippocampus and anterolateral temporal cortex (MTL+)
Matched to 8 ‘normal’ pp for age sex and education
What did the procedure involve?
Nine tests over 3-5 sessions including Semantic test battery
Tests were based on line drawings of 24 animals and 24 objects and were designed to measure semantic knowledge
In some cases a 4 further tests were conducted
What were the tests
1-4 = point and name 5 = semantic features 6-7 = categories 8-9 = defining
Task 10 = pyramid and palm tree test
Task 12 = colouring objects
How were the results assessed
% of correct responses scored for errors in grammar, expression, confusion etc
Inter rater reliability was established for the scoring
What were the results
Hippocampus were as good as controls
Those with medial temporal lobe damage and MTL+ performed worse than controls and the ranking of their score was directly comparable to their brain damage
Both HM and MTL worse than controls on pyramid and palm tree test
Conclusions
Hippocampus is not implicated in semantic memory
MTL and MTL+ regions are implicated in semantic memory
Generalisability of Schmolck
Relatively low as it had a small sample size, so true extent to which Schmolcks findings can be applied is limited
Reliability of Schmolck
Standardised procedure
Easily repeatable
Highly reliable
Reliable representation
Applicability of Schmolck
Good,
Allows us to identify regions of the brain associated with semantic memory
Potentially leading to treatments targeting those areas
Validity of Schmolck
Low,
Not in natural environment
Schmolck used line drawings, which may not be an accurate representation of how they are used in real life
