Your textbook describes two types of amnesia: retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Retrograde, or “backward moving,” amnesia usually results from a blow to the head. Following the injury, the individual is unable to remember some or all of his or her past. Anterograde, or “forward moving,” amnesia can be triggered by a number of factors, such as blacking out from too much alcohol or an injury to the hippocampus. An individual with anterograde amnesia is unable to form new memories.
It is not uncommon for suspects awaiting trial to claim that they have limited or even no memory of their violent crimes (Peters, van Oorsouw, Jalicic, & Merckelbach, 2013). They may also claim that they have no memory of events leading up to or following the commission of a crime. This type of forgetting is often called dissociative amnesia.
Question
1
Find an article or a Website that describes dissociative amnesia. What are the characteristics of dissociative amnesia? Provide a citation for the source you used or include the URL if your source is an online article or Website.
Question
2
According to the article or Website that you used for Question 1, what are the possible causes of dissociative amnesia?
Question
3
Locate a description of the Dusky standard, which is often used in criminal cases. Briefly describe the Dusky standard. How might amnesia fall under this legal standard?
Question
4
Do you believe that amnesia should be considered when evaluating the guilt or innocence of a criminal suspect? Explain your answer.
Question
5
According to your textbook, disruptions in memory consolidation can be caused by
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D.
Question
6
Katona was riding on the back of her boyfriend’s motorcycle when they were struck by a car. Katona experienced a severe head injury and is unable to recall the accident or what she did during the two days leading up to the accident. Katona is demonstrating characteristics of
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B.
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D.
Question
7
Which of the following brain structures is involved in encoding and storing of the emotional qualities associated with our memories, such as fear and anger?
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D.
Question
8
What role does the hippocampus play in memory and amnesia?
The hippocampus is involved in forming new explicit memories for episodic and semantic information. As revealed in the case of Henry Gustav Molaison, injury to or removal of the hippocampus can cause anterograde amnesia, or the inability to form new memories. It appears that the hippocampus is not involved in most tasks requiring short-term memory, nor is it a storage site for already established long-term memories. Rather, the hippocampus plays an important role in the encoding of new memories and the transfer of those memories from short-term to long-term memory.