BIOAPP - Maguire et Al (2000)

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

investigate the function of hippocampus in spacial memory -
if the brain of London taxi drivers would differ (is different) from a brain of a non taxi driver

Question 2

participants

Answer 2

16 right-handed male taxi drivers (with knowledge test + at least a license of 1.5 years)

control group - 50 right-handed non taxi male drivers (taken from a MRI scan base)

Question 3

type of study

Answer 3

correlational - IV is not manipulated by researcher
single blind study

Question 4

techniques

Answer 4

VBM - voxel based morphementry - to measure density of grey matter

pixels - to calculate the pixels in the image = calculate area of hippocampus

Question 5

findings

Answer 5

pixels showed that the posterior hippocampi (grey matter) of taxi drivers were significantly larger than those of control subjects
anterior hippcampi was smaller than control group

VBM showed that the volume of the right posterior hippocampi correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver

Question 6

how does this relate to the localization of function?

Answer 6

the posterior hippocampus is involved when previously learned spatial information is used, whereas the anterior hippocampal region may be more involved during the encoding new environmental factors

Question 7

evaluation

Answer 7

quasi experiment - no cause and effect relationship is established
ethical - MRI does not affect health and participants gave their consent
avoided researcher bias - researcher did not know which brain scan belonged to who