Transcript Amnesia - Enjoy Psych

Amnesia
How biology affects one cognitive process - Memory
 What
 How
is amnesia?
is it acquired?

Which would be worse?

Retrograde Amnesia (the failure to recall
memories that have been stored before a
trauma)

Or

Anterograde Amnesia (the failure to recall
memories that have been stored after a
trauma)
Working
with a partner,
look online to find out
what you can about Clive
Wearing.
You
have 3 minutes.

Read page 78-79 of the course companion, then we’ll
watch a clip of Clive Wearing and his wife.
HM
 HM
 Memento
 Bike
accident led to epilepsy
HM

Bilateral lesion to control seizures

Lost part of his hippocampus and amygdala
HM

Unable to form new explicit long term memories

ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA

HM has provided vital information to the field of
brain pathology
HM
 HM
can complete tasks that
require recall from short term
and procedural memory, but not
long term episodic memory.
 What
does this suggest?
HM
Mirror
Before
writing
HM people didn't
know memory could be
localized to a specific part
of the brain
HM
 HM
can recall long term
memories, but cannot create
long term memories.
HM
 HM
can recall long term memories, but
cannot create long term memories.
 This
suggests encoding and retrieval of
long term memory are mediated by
different systems.
 Which
memory model does this support?
Notes on CW and HM

Read the course companion p78-79

Gross

Routledge

Make notes on separate coloured A4 sheets on Clive Wearing and
HM.

(Be sure to include why these case studies are important to
Psychology.)