Case studies of brain damaged patients

• • A case study can involve in-depth research into the effects of brain damage on a single participant’s memory process and functioning.
• Case studies can investigate patients where the brain damage that has occurred could not be intentionally caused for the purpose of a study.
• Case studies can triangulate a number of research methods, such as observations, PET scanning and experimental methods
• • Research using case studies of brain-damaged patients can generate qualitative data that describes the memory functioning in detail.
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  The uniqueness of cases such as Clive Wearing or H.M., means the results may not be generalisable as the damage to their brains may not be useful to represent how memory would be affected in others.
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  The qualitative nature of the data can make it difficult to retest and check for accuracy of the results, therefore any conclusions about memory functions may not useful if accuracy cannot be confirmed.
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  Case studies may be a more ethical way to investigate the effects of things like the removal of H.M.’s hippocampus on memory processes, so are useful to study novel circumstances
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  Triangulation improves the consistency of the data gathered within a case study, so can lead to greater reliability in findings about memory providing useful information for the understanding of memory.