Henry Molaison (HM) Flashcards
What is retrograde amnesia
Lost the ability to retrieve memories from 19 months and 11 years prior to the operations
What is quantitative data
Numeral data which is easily comparable and can be shown in graphs to collect data
What is qualitative data
Gives details and can help to explain why people react in certain ways, can also be changed into quantitative data
What year did HM have his operation
1953 aged 27
What year was the first report about HM released
1957
What did Mishkin find in 1978
Damage to the hippocampus produced the amnesia
What did HM say in 1968
‘Like waking up from a dream, everyday is alone in itself’
What is anterograde amnesia
An inability to form any new memories
What were we able to learn from HM
The memory systems constitutes a highly specialised and complex system
The hippocampus plays a critical role in converting memories of experiences from STM to LTM
as HM could still recall some memories of prior to the procedure it shows that the medial temporal region is not the site of permanent storage
What could HM still do and not do
Could still learn new skills
Lost the inability to form any new memories
Lost the ability to retrieve any memories from 19 months to 11 years prior
What are the strengths of using case studies
When more than one patient is found with similar damage, if their performance is similar then their cases can back each other up
Scientific credibility as brain scanning and experiments used. Use specific information. Study variable in a controlled way in a controlled environment
Triangulation. Different methods gives reliability
What are the weaknesses of using case studies
Individual differences. You can’t compare similar damage as it might not be fair. Case studies are not generalisable
Neuroimaging might not be sensitive enough to pick up smaller sites of damage enough to study them
There might be other issues in a person that causes difficulties might not necessarily be so as there are other variable
