HM Flashcards
How is HM a case study?
Look at naturally occurring circumstances, usually of unique cases
What was HM’s inital issue for which he had surgery?
He had severe epilepsy
What surgery did he have?
Bilateral removal of his hippocampus
What was HM’s main deficit?
He couldn’t make new long term memories but he could still handle information in short term memories
What is the function of the hippocampus?
It makes new LTM but isn’t for storage of them
Was both his making new episodic and semantic memories impaired?
Yes he had problems with new events and definitions of new words
Could HM learn new skills? (procedural memory)
Yes, he demonstrated new skills like the mirror drawing task even if he couldn’t recall learning them
What does HM show that supports MSM?
The STM and LTM are separate systems/stores
What is an ethical issue with carrying out a case study on a patient with brain damage?
They cannot give consent due to their brain damage
What is a strength of using unique natural cases in case studies?
It provides us with information about something that we couldn’t study another way
What is the problem with generalisability in a case study?
The sample is usually one person or small group of people, making it less generalisable
Case studies lack reliability because?
You cannot replicate them as they are unique and can take a long time to conduct
What is a strength of case studies linked to their duration?
They gather lots of depth and detail about development and change
