IB Psychology HL - BLOA - Examine an interaction between cognition and physiology with 2 relevant studies
Anterograde amnesia is caused by the brain's inability to transfer information from short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM), leading to difficulty forming new memories. Famous cases include Henry Molaison (HM) and Clive Wearing, both studied to understand the interaction between cognition and brain physiology.
anterograde amnesia
cause: inability to pass info from STM to LTM
effect: inability to create new LTM memories
notable sufferers: Clive Wearing, Henry Molaison
Key Terms
anterograde amnesia
cause: inability to pass info from STM to LTM
effect: inability to create new LTM memories
notable sufferers: Clive Wearing, Henry Mola...
Who was Clive Wearing?
a musician that contracted encephalitis (viral infection)
this left him with serious brain damage to the hippocampus, causing memory impairme...
Sacks (2007) - Aim
To demonstrate memory processes between STM and LTM
Sacks (2007) - Findings
he couldn’t transfer episodic memory from STS to LTS
thus his memory lasts 7-30 seconds and he cannot form new memories
he constantly f...
Sacks (2007) - Conclusion
STM and LTM are separate memory stores
- memories stored in LTM have a limited duration
Sacks (2007) - Evaluation
realistic case study with in-depth info
but the brain infection was too widespread
for researchers to accurately locate the exact areas...
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
anterograde amnesia | cause: inability to pass info from STM to LTM effect: inability to create new LTM memories notable sufferers: Clive Wearing, Henry Molaison |
Who was Clive Wearing? | a musician that contracted encephalitis (viral infection) this left him with serious brain damage to the hippocampus, causing memory impairment He suffers from: anterograde amnesia: impairment in ability to remember after a particular incident retrograde amnesia: impairment in ability to remember before a particular incident Main study: Sacks (2007) |
Sacks (2007) - Aim | To demonstrate memory processes between STM and LTM |
Sacks (2007) - Findings | he couldn’t transfer episodic memory from STS to LTS thus his memory lasts 7-30 seconds and he cannot form new memories he constantly feels like he has just woken up from years of unconsciousness however, Wearing could learn new skills and retained his musical ability and could talk, read, write, and sight-read music scores (procedural memory) his personality remained unchanged furthermore, Wearing’s wife noted that Wearing had developed a sense of his own condition and over time had changed from a state of perpetual confusion to being calmer and happier |
Sacks (2007) - Conclusion | STM and LTM are separate memory stores - memories stored in LTM have a limited duration |
Sacks (2007) - Evaluation | realistic case study with in-depth info but the brain infection was too widespread for researchers to accurately locate the exact areas of the brain that might be responsible for certain aspects of memory |
Who was Henry Molaison? | suffered epileptic fits from 16 had surgery to remove parts of his brain (including hippocampus) at 27 surgery cured epilepsy but caused complications (i.e. severe anterograde amnesia) like Clive Wearing, he constantly feels like he has just woken up from years of unconsciousness Main study: Scoville and Milner (1957) |
Scoville and Milner (1957) - findings | unable to remember any new events HM retained and could learn new motor skills (procedural memory) performed normally in intelligence tests |
Scoville and Milner (1957) - conclusion | completely forgets episodic memory due to it not being transferred from STM to LTM but can retain procedural memory and his intelligence was unaffected provides evidence for localization of function |
Scoville and Milner (1957) - evaluation | at first HM’s surgery was thought to give a good understanding of how particular areas of the brain are linked to cognitive processes but from the Corkin (1997) MRI, the brain damage was worse than previously thought (a significant portion of both temporal lobes were removed) thus it was not possible to identify one particular region responsible for Molaison’s memory problems |
evaluation of case studies | intensive investigation into a subject produces rich, detailed results but since it’s for very specific circumstances, it can’t be generalized to the entire population |
what to write when asked “Examine an interaction between cognition and physiology and evaluate 2 relevant studies” | main idea: memory (anterograde amnesia) as cognitive factor, hippocampus as physiological factor outline the effect of anterograde amnesia on memory outline the function of hippocampus explain what those two have to do with each other judge their relative importance in influencing human behaviour Clive Wearing (Sacks, 2007): hippocampus damaged by the viral infection encephalitis Henry Molaison (Scoville and Milner, 1957): hippocampus removed to alleviate his epilepsy evaluate strengths and limitations of case studies judge validity, reliability, and general applicability of case studies assess any ethical considerations taken |