Wilson, Kopelman and Kapur

• year?

  2008
• aim?

  record neuropsychological assessments and experiences of individual who suffered from extreme and rare case of both retrograde and anterograde amnesia
• method?

  longitudinal case study
• sample?

  ppt was Clive Wearing; British man born 1938
• Clive's history?

  * outstanding musician and gifted musical scholar

  * developed type of flu in 1985 and later diagnosed with herpes simplex viral encephalitis - disease destroying large sections of brain

  * first referred to Wilson in 1985 and was studied on many other occasions over the next 20 years

  * research involved detailed observations and in depth interviews as well as brain scans at intervals
• what study found? (1)

  * Clive's verbal and and performance IQ had declined compared to before his illness, although now being average

  * short term memory was normal but long term was severely affected

  * always scored 0 on tests on long term memory

  * his brain was very different from normal in many areas

  * episodic (long term memory for personal experiences) and semantic memory (long term fact storage) was severely affected

  * couldn't form new memories or recall old ones but could still talk, read, write and sight read music
• what study found? (2)

  * for many years, Clive didn't accept he had a memory disorder, constantly thinking the moment he was in was the moment he gained consciousness

  * Wilson suggested in 1995 that this unacceptance could be a delusion, but later disproven and seen as something Clive did to try and make sense of his situation

  * his temporal lobe damage was so severe that's why he didn't remember his past "consciousness"
• what study found? (3)

  * the fact his short term memory worked but long term didn't supported that there are 2 different memory stores

  * also shows there's different types of long term memory, as Clive still had procedural memory
• criticisms?

  * difficult to generalise bc case study

  * findings can be open to researcher bias bc many of Clive's experiences are hard for him to explain so open to interpretation

  * ethical concerns like lack of confidentiality, the way he was tested didn't benefit him directly so no concern for his welfare and he seemed distressed by investigation

  * researchers didn't know Clive before his illness so have to rely on family's accounts on him which are open to interpretation