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Memory Loss Case Study

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Interaction between the Psychological basis and Physiological basis of Memory loss in relation to HM’s case study. Memory loss, commonly referred to as ‘Amnesia’ is “a failure of memory caused by physical injury, disease, drug use or psychological trauma” (American Psychological Association, 2002). Mostly due to lesion or surgical removal of various parts of the brain. Unlike the plot twists in movies and a common cliché on television programs, Amnesia in real life is not a dramatic form of forgetting who you are and doesn’t result simply, in the loss of self-identity. It is a lot more complicated than that. Contrary to popular belief, Amnesiacs are usually coherent and know who they are. However, they will have trouble forming novel memories …show more content…

It is vital for everyday functioning and goes through a three staged process: Encoding, storage and Retrieval. This information is very briefly stored in our sensory memory and if attended to, flows into Short term memory and once rehearsed, is encoded in Long term memory which stores information for a longer period. This model was introduced by Atkinson and Shiffrin titled “Multi store Model”. (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968). This is one of the most influential models of memory and included the following assumptions. 1. Memory is a serial process that facilitates the transfer of information (From SM to STM to LTM). 2. Each category of memory has its own store. (For e.g. STM uses a particular section of the brain than the LTM) 3. Each type of memory has a single- unitary store. HM’s study strongly supports this model as it shows that long term memory and short term memory are two crucially important but distinct stores. After the removal of Hippocampus, HM’s short term memory was still intact. (Corkin, 1984). For instance, HM had no problem repeating a telephone number and had a normal digit span. In fact, he could have a normal conversation for quite long until the discourse did not need reference to an incident that was mentioned initially in the conversation. However his long term memory was damaged as he was unable to form new memories and transfer them into his long term memory. (Memory Consolidation process was affected). Although he had no trouble remembering people he met long ago, he couldn’t remember meeting new people at all. Reading and re-reading the same magazine created no idea of familiarity (Scoville and Milner, 1957). Two of the hypotheses that Psychologists identified after assessing his case is that short term memory does not require the hippocampus for formation of memories and that they are biologically different from long term memory. Secondly, long term memory

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He still remembered things that you would be surprised that somebody would still want to hold on to. He remembers his family 's discomforting feel; his so-called friends constantly mocking him, taking advantage of him. His agitation as a result of the ethically questionable experiment is apparent and deeply felt: “ Why can 't I remember?

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“In truth [memory] no longer represents our past to us, … if it still deserves the name of memory, it is because it prolongs their useful effect into the present moment.” (Bergson, 1910). This is a powerful statement with regards to amnesiac patients. KC suffered brain damage, and consequently amnesia, after a motorbike accident. “… KC may be said to have global anterograde amnesia (AA), and episodic retrograde amnesia (RA)”,

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A study that exemplifies forgetting is Millner & Scoville (1957) study on H.M. They found out that H.M could no longer be able to form new memories because the hippocampus is needed to transfer short-term memories into long-term memories. Since H.M is no longer able to form new memories, he suffers from anterograde amnesia. (Millner & Scoville,

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Psychogenic amnesia is also known as dissociative amnesia and functional amnesia; for consistency, this paper will refer to this phenomenon as psychogenic amnesia (MacDonald & MacDonald, 2009). Lack of memory for autobiographical and episodic events is the most common, but some patients also experience impairments in recall of personal semantic facts and non-personal semantic knowledge (Staniloiu & Markowitsch, 2012). Psychogenic amnesia is thought to be an impairment in the retrieval of memories rather than encoding. It is likely a result of blocked access to memories that are still stored, but no longer accessible due to dysfunction of the brain structures and mechanisms involved in memory retrieval (MacDonald & Macdonald, 2009; Rathbone et al.,

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Moreover, “a behavioural syndrome results showing not only semantic-memory impairment but also particular difficulty remembering past events as personal happenings” (Tulving, 1989). Lastly, in Endel Tulving’s conclusion to his article he states “traditionally held views about the unity of memory are no longer tenable. A more appropriate view seems to be that of multiple memory systems. Remembering one’s past is a different, perhaps more advanced, achievement of the brain than simply knowing about it” ( Tulving,

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(2007) all underwent neuroradiological and neurophysiological exams to determine the presence of brain damage and confirm the form of amnesia they had. The results were consistent in that the case study with PA showed no brain damage while the OA case studies did show brain damage in the frontal lobes and hippocampus. Yet, only one PA case study is looked at while there are two OA cases in the Serra et al. (2007) paper, this isn’t a large sample. A problem encountered with finding case studies to compare is that individuals suffering from the amnesia being investigated can be rare and so finding larger samples is very difficult.

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749 Words | 3 Pages

The multistore models presume that information flows logically from one store to another, i.e., sensory stores to short-term memory to long-term memory (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). Information can

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Memory plays a big role in our life. We use memory every moment of the day from waking up to going to sleep. It might not seem like we are using it but it is actively on, such as when we are doing our daily chores or even sitting down to watch TV. The formal definition of memory by Sigelman and Rider is “our ability to store and later retrieve information about past events, develops and change over the life span”.

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How reliable are the two models or theories of the cognitive process of memory, “|…|the process of maintaining information over time” (Matlin, 2005) , known as the multistore model (MSM) and the levels of processing model (LOP)? Both of these models have been widely criticized, but simultaneously they have improved our knowledge and understanding of how the process of memory works. In this essay both of these models of memory will be evaluated by presenting the strengths and limitations of each. The first model, the multistore model, was put forward by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) which suggests that the concept of memory involves three stores; the sensory stores, the short-term store (STS), and the long-term store (LTS).

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Introduction Memory is the ability to maintain and use of information for the appropriate goal (1). Appropriate performance of memory depends on the health of many brain regions, including areas that are very sensitive to injury or disease. Learning and memory impairments are common complaints of individuals with symptoms of neurological disorders that impact on the daily activities and functional capabilities(2–4). Memory impairment is the most important reasons for seeking psychological evaluation in outpatient(2). In addition, many psychiatric and neurological diseases cause impairments in the process of memory(4–6).

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Autobiographical memories Introduction: Autobiographical memories can be described as those events of an individual’s life, that the individual, claims to remember. Also, it can be thought of as events that take place during the course of an individual’s lifetime. Till the 1950s and 1960s, the major area in the field of research was Attention, but a major breakthrough in understanding memory was Miller’s 1956 paper, “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information”. It was because of this paper, that researchers thought of investigating more in the field of memory. Allan Baddeley, in the 1970’s came up with his model of working memory that described the executive function of our memory,

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1387 Words | 6 Pages

But if stopped rehearsing the digits, he would quickly forgot that he was even asked. Years later, Baddeley (1974) revisited the multi-store model and created his own working memory model. This model describes more of the processes when encoding information into long term memory. This model is made up of a visual-spatial sketchpad on the right, which takes visual and spatial information and encodes it into the central executive. On the left is the phonological loop which stores audio and verbal information.

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1648 Words | 7 Pages

The biological approach to the basis of memory is explained in terms of underlying biological factors such as the activity of the nervous system, genetic factors, biochemical and neurochemicals. In general terms memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and recall information and past experiences afterwards in the human brain. In biological terms, memory is the recreation of past experiences by simultaneous activation or firing of neurons. Some of the major biopsychological research questions on memory are what are the biological substrates of memory, where are memories stored in the brain, how are memories assessed during recall and what is the mechanism of forgetting. The two main reasons that gave rise to the interest in biological basis of memory are that researchers became aware of the fact that many memory deficits arise from injuries to the brain.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

If information stored in the short-term memory is not learned and given attention, it will decay over time (Schunk 2012, p. 183). The short-term memory has a small capacity, and large amounts of information cannot all be stored (Schunk 2012, p. 183). To make it esier, information can be shortened or broken up to fit it in the short-term memory (Schunk 2012, p. 183). Information that is used will be transferred into the long-term store/ long-term memory (Schunk 2012, p. 183). There are different strategies to strengthen the memory of information from short-term to long-term.

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Memory is the process in which information is encoded stored and retrieved from our brain. However, memory can also be so utterly manipulated ultimately making it useless. Memory can be constructive and reconstructed. A common misconception is memory works like a tape recorder.

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