Biological Area

Question 1

what are the assumptions of the biological area

Answer 1

-all that is psychological is first physiological. The mind resides in the brain and so all thoughts, feelings and behaviours have a biological cause
-behaviour is due to biological factors such as genes, brain structure, and hormones
-therefore states that psychology should investigate the brain, neurochemistry, the nervous and endocrine system and genetics

Question 2

what is an application of the biological area?

Answer 2

the advances in brain scanning techniques have helped to explain the cause and mechanisms involved in mental disorders and vulnerability to addiction

Question 3

what is the background to Sperrys study?

Answer 3

-previous research using split-brain animals showed numerous behavioural effects
-sperry set out this to show that each hemisphere: posses an independent stream of conscience awareness and has its own chain of separate chain of memory’s that are inaccessible to each other

Question 4

What is the aim of Sperry’s study?

Answer 4

to study the effects of a split brain in order to show that each hemisphere has a different function and therefore demonstrates lateralisation of functioning.

Question 5

what does the left hemisphere control and process?

Answer 5

-controls the right hand and right visual field
-processes language

Question 6

what does the right hemisphere control and process?

Answer 6

-controls the left hand and left visual field
-processes pictures /symbols, and emotion

Question 7

what is the sample to Sperry’s study?

Answer 7

11 split brain patients who had a history of advanced epilepsy which could not be controlled by medication

Question 8

what was the method to Sperry’s study?

Answer 8

-Quasi Experiment as IV of having a split brain is naturally occurring
-procedure to treat epilepsy
-considered a case study as studies a small group of people, and testing them multiple times over a period of time longitudinally collecting qualitative data
-DV is the performance on the visual and tactile task as this demonstrates there lateralization of functioning

Question 9

what was the procedure to Sperry’s research?

Answer 9

-used a tachistoscope
-participants wore an eyepatch on one eye and sat in front of the screen with hand holds, and were asked to fixate on a black cross in the center of the screen
-all images, words, and objects were of the same difficulty a to identify and were flashed 0.1 seconds
-standardized so it is replicable so results on lateralization of functioning are more likely to be reliable
-allowed causality to be established between affect of split brain on lateralization of functioning and therefore allowed a more valid explanation of functioning

Question 10

describe the visual test used in Sperry’s research.

Answer 10

-images were flashed on a 35mm transparency from a projector for 0.1 seconds to either the left or right visual field while other eye was covered
-ppts were shown a symbol of a ? to there LVF and were asked if they could name it, if they couldn’t they were asked to draw it with their left hand
-ppts were shown a $ to their RVF and were asked the same questions if they could name it they were not asked to draw it.

Question 11

describe the tactile test used in Sperry’s research.

Answer 11

-objects were placed in either left or right hand
-ppts were given a key in their left hand and asked to name it if they couldn’t they were given a grab bag and asked to select the item in their left hand amongst other items
-ppts were given a tennis ball in their right hand and were given a grab bag and told to locate the item in their hand.

Question 12

what were the findings in Sperry’s study?

Answer 12

when ppts were shown a ? in their LVF they could not identify seeing it however they could draw it with their left hand, after seeing it they could name it
-when pots were shown a $ to their RVF they could easily name it as it was processed by the left hemisphere which controls language

Question 13

what were the conclusions of Sperry’s study?

Answer 13

there is lateralization of functioning, the left hemisphere is responsible for language and the left side of the body and the right hemisphere is responsible for the creative tasks and controls the left side of the body
- there is a lack of cross integration and the two hemispheres and they have there own stream of consciousness

Question 14

What is lateralization of functioning?

Answer 14

The two half’s of the brain are functionally different and that each hemisphere has functional specialisations.

Question 15

What is the function of the cerebellum?

Answer 15

Controls coordination, movement and balance

Question 16

What is the function of the brain stem?

Answer 16

Helps regulate body functions, including your breathing and heart rate

Question 17

What is the function of the frontal lobe?

Answer 17

Responsible for high cognitive functions like memory, emotions, impulses, control, problem solving and moral function

Question 18

What is the role of the corpus callosum?

Answer 18

Allows information to be transmitted between each hemisphere

Question 19

What is the function of the inferior frontal gyrus?

Answer 19

Processes speech and language.

Question 20

What is the function of the ventral striatum?

Answer 20

Associative information from the amygdala and the prefrontal regions can influence motor output to guide behaviour

Question 21

What is the background to Casey et al’s study?

Answer 21

Regions of the brain

Question 22

What is delay gratification?

Answer 22

The ability to resist temptation in favour for a long term goal, which is essential for an individuals success, and depends on ones cognitive control

Question 23

What is the Go/No-Go Task?

Answer 23

a cognitive control task that uses the brain in the same way as delaying gratification but is used for adults, as it is quite difficult to determine what would be alluring for each individual. Usually an image is flashed on the screen and the person is given an instruction of when to press the button (go) or not (no-go)

Question 24

What is meant by “cool” features?

Answer 24

Focus on cognitive features such as weight and shape, these relate to cognitive control

Question 25

What is meant by “hot” features?

Answer 25

Appealing features of the stimuli such as taste, these are relating to desires and emotions

Question 26

What is a high delayer?

Answer 26

The ability to resist temptation for a long period of time

Question 27

What is a low delayer?

Answer 27

Someone who is unable/ finds it difficult to resist temptation

Question 28

What is the aim of Casey’s study?

Answer 28

To investigate if delay of gratification in childhood could predict impulse control abilities and sensitivity to alluring social cues at the behavioural and neural level at 40

Question 29

What is the method to Casey’s study?

Answer 29

Was a quasi-experiment as the IV of weather the participant was a high or low delayer was naturally occurring, and so cannot be directly manipulated by the experimenter.
The DV was the performance on the impulse control cognitive go/no-go task in both experiments, Experiment 2 was the imaging results using an fMRI

Question 30

What is a strength of using a longitudinal methodology?

Answer 30

You are able to build up detailed information over time and are able to have more accurate and reliable findings.

Question 31

What was the sample for Casey’s study?

Answer 31

-562 4 year-olds from Stanford’s Bing Nursery
-117 of 135 were contacted and asked if they would like to take part in the study and 59 (23m and 36f) agreed
-Initially the sample was large which meant that it was likely to be representative of how everyone delays gratification and it being due to the ventral stratum and inferior frontal gyrus can be generalised and these results have population validity. However the sample is ethnocentric as it only samples children from a nursery in Stanford and so cannot explain the delay of gratification in other cultures as their society

Question 32

What is the procedure for Casey’s study?

Answer 32

-Experiment 1- is experiment tested whether delay of gratification was a stable behavioural characteristic. Children defined as low delayers in childhood and as young adults were predicted to show less impulse control in the suppression of responses to “hot” relative to “cool” social cues. High delayers were predicted to find this much easier. A total of 160 trials were presented per run. Accuracy and response latency data (reaction times) were acquired in four runs representing each combination of stimulus sex (male, female) and trial type (go, no-go). High levels of control, such as each face being displayed for 500ms and there is always a determined interval between faces, ensures the tasks are standardised and the same for every participant with the same faces, number of trials and fMRI scanner. This means that the results about how participants delay gratification are more likely to be reliable. However the task itself lacks mundane realism as a person does not often press a button in response to images of faces to identify their sex. Therefore it is questionable if results are ecologically valid at explaining delay of gratification in a real world situation
-Experiment 2-fMRI scanner to examine the neural correlates of delay of gratification. It was predicted that low delayers would show diminished activity (less) in the right prefrontal cortex (inferior frontal gyrus) and amplified activity (more) in the ventral striatum compared to high delayers

Question 33

What were the findings of Casey’s study?

Answer 33

-Experiment 1-completing the “go” trials there was no effect of delay group (high or low delayer) on reaction times. Completing the “no-go” trials overall low delayers made more false alarms and therefore were less accurate. This suggests that they had more difficultly using their inferior frontal gyrus to suppress their immediate response from their ventral striatum.
-Experiment 2- the two groups did not differ significantly in reaction times and therefore low and high delayers performed similarly for correct trials. Overall accuracy rates for the “hot” go/no-go task were uniformly high for “go” trials.

Question 34

What were the conclusions of Casey’s study?

Answer 34

-Individuals at the age of 4 who had difficulty delaying gratification continue to show reduced self-control abilities and have more difficulty as an adult in suppressing responses to positive social cues than those who don’t.
-The capacity to resist temptation varies by context

Question 35

What is the background to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 36

What is the Aim to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 37

What is the Sample to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 38

What is the Procedure to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 39

What is the Method to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 40

What is the Findings to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 41

What is the Conclusions to Blakemore and Cooper’s study?

Question 42

What is the background to Maguire’s research?

Question 43

What is the aim of Maguire’s research?

Question 44

What is the sample to Maguire’s research?

Question 45

What is the procedure to Maguire’s research?

Question 46

What is the method to Maguire’s research?

Question 47

What are the findings to Maguire’s research?

Question 48

What are the conclusions to Maguire’s research?