16 markers

Question 1

Discuss ways of studying the brain (1st paragraph)

Answer 1

fMRI
- measures changes in brain activity during a task using magnetic field and radio waves
- very expensive so small sample sizes reducing validity
- data is complex and can be interpreted differently by people
- low temporal resolution

Question 2

Ways of studying brain (2nd paragraph)

Answer 2

EEG
- uses electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain
- cheaper than fMRI so more sample sizes increasing validity
- worse spatial resolution than fMRI

Question 3

Ways of studying brain (3rd paragraph)

Answer 3

Event-related potentials
- uses electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain during a task
- cheaper than fMRI so more sample sizes increasing validity
- worse spatial resolution than fMRI

Question 4

Ways of studying brain (4th paragraph)

Answer 4

Post mortem
- looks at physical brain to find underlying pre-death issues
- require special permission to conduct so smaller sample size decreasing validity
- can be affected by changes which happen during/after death
- enable deeper regions of brain to be investigated

Question 5

Discuss localisation of function in the brain (1st paragraph)

Answer 5

Localisation
- belief that specific areas of the brain are responsible for certain processes

Broca’s area
- area in frontal lobe related to speech production

Wernicke’s area
- area in temporal lobe important for language comprehension

Motor cortex
- responsible for voluntary motor movements

Somatosensory cortex
- processes input from sensory receptors that are sensitive to touch

Question 6

Localisation of function (2nd paragraph)

Answer 6

Peterson et al
- used brain scans to show how wernicke’s area was active during listening task, broca’s area was active during reading task
- suggests that areas of the brain have different functions

Question 7

Localisation of function (3rd paragraph)

Answer 7

Lashley
- proposed equipotentiality theory, suggests that basic motor and sensory functions are localised but higher mental functions are not
- so casts doubt on theories about localisation of functions
- suggesting functions aren’t localised to one region

Question 8

Localisation of function (4th paragraph)

Answer 8

Phineas Gage
- frontal lobe was impaled with a pole, damage made him quick-tempered
- suggests that frontal lobe is responsible for regulating mood
- one unique event so not generalisable