HM and case studies Flashcards
Describe the brain as a computer metaphor
The brain is a storage system receiving info from the environment. Computer hardware is the structure of the brain. Software is the experience we have to write into the system.
What is cognitive neuropsychology?
The study of patients with brain damage to determine the impact of the damage on the functions of their brain
How might nature/nurture debate be relevant to cognitive psych?
Investigates whether the way we think is determined by genetically inherited characteristics or whether it’s learned from other people
Describe 4 assumptions of the cognitive approach?
Thoughts influence behaviour. Humans are information processors. The mind operates in a similar way to a computer. Internal mental processes can and should be investigated scientifically.
Describe HM
7 when knocked down by a bike, minor epileptic seizures at 10 and at 16 major and at 27 performed a bilateral medial temporal lobe resection by William Scoville- he was studied using observations and interviews and IQ tests. Memory up to age 16 was intact but no new info and forgot daily events and couldn’t learn new words so unable to encode temporary STM into LTM but had normal intelligence levels & intact sensory memory and motor skills like tracing a star shape
Conclusions of HM
Memory functions separately from other brain functions such as perception and cognition.There is a distinction between short term memory and long-term memory. (HM could hold information in short term memory (eg his digit span was normal, while rehearsing the digits) but could not transfer that information to his long-term memory.There is a distinction between declarative and non-declarative memory (he could acquire new motor skills but not new facts).
The medial temporal lobe is important for memory.
Memory is not a single faculty of the mind; there are multiple memory systems in the brain.
Generalisability PEEC HM
One weakness is that genberalisabiltiy may be low due it being a case study. For example, they are typically on one ppt and from an atypical perspective that cannot be generalise to the wider population like HM who also had epilepsy.Which is quite rare menaing it cannot be applied to people without it and assumed it it’s a correct approach. However the findings from brain stimulation, unilateral lobectomy and semantic dementia which support HMs findings that the lateral temporal cortex is involved in semantic knowledge
Validity PEEC
-high eg star tracing showed motor skills + studied using variety of methods so rich details of memory issies however as it’s a case study no control over extraneus variables or idea of his memory before incident
PEEC ethics HM
WEAKNESS- NO MEMORY SO NO INFORMED CONSERT + NO PERMISSION FOR BRAIN BEING PRESERVED AND SLICED FROM CLOSE RELAtives should be careful they don’t exploit these cases by over studying them however henry ppted
Qualitive data process
1) create research question
2)collect data
3)transcribe data
4)look for themes and ideas
5)reach conclusions based on themes
5)explain and justify conclusions
Clive Wearing
- Developed amnesia due to an illness that destroyed his hippocampus.
- Couldn’t form new memories as he could not transfer information from the STM to the LTM.
- Can still access his LTM as he still plays and reads music. These skills would be stored in the LTM and shows that the STM and LTM are separate stores
Evaluate the use of qualitative data in psychology
One strength is that it allows for a rich description of a person’s experiences. This is because, in cog psych it allows us to get in-depth info about people’s thought processes. One weakness is that it may be difficult to interpret. This is because in cog psych it might mean info about people’s thought processes isn’t accurately interpreted and therefore lacks validity.
One strength and weakness of using case studies of brain damaged patients
One strength is that they gather rich, detailed data about memory. This is because it allows us to forms deep understanding of how memory works in individuals, which can explain what areas in the brain are important for memory. One weakness is case studies are often based on one person or a small group of people. This means that memory damage may not have the same effects on everyone so we can’t generalise findings.
How does the issue of individual differences related to the use of cognitive psych
The extent of brain damage and the response of individual patients to the damage highlights important individual differences between the unique cases. We should be careful not to generalise the findings of these unique cases to our overall understanding of memory in the whole population.
(Asses 8 marker) PEEC on case studies strength
One of the important factors of using case studies in psychology is that it provides an opportunity to study a unique or rare phenomenon in depth.
This allows for a number of different research techniques to be used to gather data which increases the validity of the findings.
For example, H.M. suffered brain damage after an operation, to remove part of his hippocampus, which resulted in H.M. losing the ability to create any new long term memories. Many different tests were carried out on H.M., like drawing a star in the mirror, to study the different parts of his memory and how they were affected after his brain damage.
This case study was very important in showing the role that the hippocampus played in forming long-term memories and was pivotal in demonstrating that memory had different components. It allowed new hypotheses to be generated for future testing.
