The case of H.M.

His name is Henry Gustav Molaison. He is famous as H.M., he was an memory disorder patient. When he was 9 years old, his head hit by a bicycle rider. He had seizures after the accident. However, scientists had no idea, and could not understand about his head, because they had no way to see inside his brain. Eighteen years after that bicycle accident, Dr. Scoville decided to remove two finger shaped slivers of tissue from Henry Gustav Molaison's brain. His surgery was successful in controlling the seizures but after this surgery, H.M had severe amnesia. He was still able to remember things from before the surgery but he could not retain any new memories. If he makes new experiences of memory, then he was forgotten all the memory after a while.
The case of H.M. was very important role in the development of theories that explain the brain function and memory. His personality, IQ, and knowledge of the world were intact. However his long term memory and short term memory was not the problem, because he could still remember of his youth, also he could memorize 8-digit numbers and retains the info for 30 seconds The real problem was the ability to convert short-term memories into long-term memories.
Hours after Henry Molaison’s death, scientists took scans of his brain; data that help exactly which areas of his temporal lobes were still untouched and which were damaged, and how this pattern related to his memory. His case has helped scientists understand much more about the brain.

Schema Theory

Schema theory describes how we create psychological representations to perceive and understand reality, whether it is reality in the outer world of people and things, or reality in the inner world. A psychological schema is the perceptual structure we use to make sense of the world around us. A schema is like a network, where different ideas and perceptions are connected in different ways. Everyone has their own personal schema. When they get a perception, they try to fit into their own schema. The perceptual structure, the context, and gives meaning to what they see. Schema theory is important in many ways, such as learning or communication.  

Bartlett experiment was to remember a story called "The War of the Ghost". During recalling of the story, the participants do not remember of details in the story, and they kind of change the story to fit on their sense. The phenomenon became overt, that participants gave up their details to make sense of the information. The conclusion of this experiment lucidly conveyed the schema theory. The demonstration of human memory, that memory can reconstruct following the schema. Bartlett accomplished that people follow along the schema theory or insensitive mental structure that shows one’s general information and though that, memory is affected.

French and Richards experiment showed the study of influence of schemata on memory retrieval. There would be three participants. The three participants were shown a clock with roman numeric symbols. First participant were shown a clock and then asked to draw the clock from memory, asked second participant to remember the clocks and draw, and asked third participant just to draw the clock. The first two participants reverted to the conventional IV notation, but third participants, the IIII notation. French and Richards explained this result in terms of schemata knowledge of roman numerical effecting participant memory retrieval.  

Loftus and Palmer experiment was the test of language. The participants were shown film clips of traffic accidents. After they seen the film, and asked them to answer some question about just what they seen. The question was the critical question; it was to do with the speed of the car involved in the collision. There were five questions, but they changed the verb in each five questions such as smashed, bumped, hit, collided and contacted. The result of the experiment shows the information of the memory can mix up with other memory.

 

The case of Ronald Cotton, Jennifer Thompson was victim. Thompson stated that Ronald Cotton is rapist. After the examination, it found out that her memory was wrong. Because her witness is not true, it proved by eyewitness testimony.   

To sum up, memory can change it. The schema theory both helps and hinders the accurate recall of memory. As I mentioned above, schema theory has an advantage or disadvantage for people's memory.

Review of the case of Ronald Cotton

In 1984, there was a African American called Ronald Cotton. There was an accident in Jennifer Thompson’s house. The rapist broke into Thompson’s apartment through back of the door. The noise awakened her. The man came into her bedroom, and forced her to submit to sexual intercourse. During the attack she studied the rapist’s face, showed to identify him if she survived the attack. Thompson remembered her assailant’s face and she worked with police to create a composite sketch of the rapist. When presented with a photo lineup, she identified Cotton as her rapist. She testified against him twice, even after seeing Bobby Poole. After nine years, Cotton was watching the Simpson trial unfold on TV when he heard about a miraculous new test that could prove his innocence. So he asked to take DNA test. And the results came back, DNA testing proved that Poole was real rapist. Thompson has since become a critic of the reliability of eyewitness testimony. She was remorseful after learning that Ronal was an innocent who was sent to prison.  

                                 

A false memory is a fabricated or distorted  recollection of an event that did not actually happen.  People often think of  memory as something like a video recorder, accurately documenting and storing everything that happens with perfect accuracy and clarity. In reality, memory is very prone to fallacy. People can feel completely confident that their memory is accurate, but this confidence is no guarantee that particular memory is correct.

I think the witness is not usefulness. From Jennifer Thompsom’s memory of the rapist, she confused the face of rapist. Her witness is not exactly true, because the false memory involve confusing or mixing fragments of memory events, some of which may have happened at different times but which are remembered as occurring together. Over time, memories become distorted and begin to change. In some case, the original memory may be changed in order to incorporate new information or experiences.