amnesia patient case studies (evidence for/against MSM of memory)

• what are the names of the 3 case studies

  clive wearing - conducted by baddeley

  HM - conducted by milner

  KF - conducted by shallice and warrington
• info about clive wearing

  - is a highly educated man, cambridge scholar

  - 1985 he had a viral infection that damaged his hippocampus, causing memory dysfunction

  -he has normal STM but impaired LTM

  - he lacks the ability to form new memories in the LTM and to recall some aspects of past memories

  -memory only lasts between 7 and 30 seconds

  -he spends everyday 'waking up' every 20s as if 'restarting' his consciousness once the time span of his STM elapses

  - he can still play the piano and reading music, he can learn new skills eg mirror writing but cannot remember he learnt it
• does clive wearing support the msm

  yes and no
• clive wearing evidence for the msm

  provides evidence for the separate stores of memory as he is unable to transfer new info from STM to LTM

  
  

  provides evidence for duration of STM
• clive wearing evidence against the msm

  some of his LTM is also impaired, suggests the LTM is not a unitary store

  - suggests there are two forms: procedural (muscle memory/non declarative) and declarative
• info about HM

  -had his hippocampus removed at 27 to cure his severe epilepsy

  -his STM was normal + his memory of events before the operation were normal

  - he could not transfer new info to the LTM

  -couldnt remember father had died

  -only knew friends if he met them before op
• does HM support the MSM

  yes, it supports the theory that there are multiple memory stores
• info about KF

  -suffered brain damage as a result of an accident at 20

  -impaired STM digit span (verbally) with only 2 items maximum

  -normal ability to process visual info and the LTM was normal too
• does KF support the MSM

  yes and no (mainly no)
• how does KF support the MSM

  supports the existence of separate stores
• how does KF not support the MSM

  since the MSM suggests that all information has to pass thorugh the STM before reaching the LTM, why was his LTM not affected?

  
  

  the MSM suggests that the STM is a unitary store, which means that both KF's visual and verbal processing would be affected the same but only his verbal processing is affected
• eval of all 3 case studies (positive)

  since these are the psycological/psychologists accounts of memory defacits, the evidence is highly reliable and provides strong evidence of separate memory stores in separate locations in the brain

  
  

  external validity is high since they are accounts of real life people and caused by real events
• eval of all 3 case studies (negative)

  population validity is low

  - these are studies of people with brain DAMAGE and the findings and conclusions may not be applicable to people with normal brains and memories