HM: Milner 1966 (Biological)

Question 1

What type of research method was used?

Answer 1

Longitudinal case study

Question 2

HM’s story?

Answer 2

HM was hit by a cyclist when he was 7 years old and sustained a serious head injury. 3 years later, he began to epileptic attacks. Then, at the age of 27, the seizures had gotten so bad that he could no longer live a normal life so, with the approval of him and his family, a neurosurgeon performed an experimental surgery where he removed tissue from the medial temporal lobe (including the hippocampus) on both sides of HM’s brain.

Question 3

Effects of the surgery on HM after

Answer 3

Shortly after the operation, he had retrograde amnesia however this improved. Unfortunately, HM mainly suffered from anterograde amnesia.

Question 4

Triangulation?

Answer 4

Yes there was triangulation used. Milner used method triangulation involving:

IQ test - HM was above average
Direct observation of HM’s behavior
Interviews with HM and his family
Cognitive Testing
MRI

Question 5

How does HM link to multi store memory model?

Answer 5

HM’s short-term memory remained intact, for example he could hold a normal conversation showing that he could retain information for brief periods, however his LTM no longer worked. This was indicated by the fact that after the operation, people who would meet would become forgotten by him a few hours later. This shows failure to transfer information from STM to LTM which ultimately, shows that these are 2 separate stores of memory and supports MSM model.