biological area

Question 1

what is the biological area about?

Answer 1

• how biological factors like our brain, hormones, genes and neurotransmitters affect our behaviour.

Question 2

what is commissurotomy and why did the participatns in sperry’s study have one?

Answer 2

a commissurotomy involves cutting and seperating the right and left hemispheres. this leads to hemisphere disconnection. the participants in Sperry’s study had previously undergone hemisphere disconnection to reduce their severe epilepsy.

Question 3

what does the left hemisphere do?
what does the right hemisphere do?
what is contralateral control?

Answer 3

• the left hemisphere is used for language, logic and numbers.
• the right hemisphere is dominant in tasks requiring spatial information such as art and movement.
• contralateral control refers to the fact that movement on each side of the body is controlled by the opposite side of the brain. eg. the left hemisphere controls the movement of the right side of the body.

Question 4

the aim of Sperry’s study

Answer 4

to investigate the effects of hemispehric deconnection on perception and memory.

Question 5

what was the research method and variables in sperry’s study?

Answer 5

a quasi experiment carried out under labarotory conditions.
DV - participants ability to perform a variety of visual and tactical tests

Question 6

what was the sample in Sperry’s study?

Answer 6

11 patients who had already undergone commissurotomies to seperate their right and left hemispeheres in attempt to control their epilepsy.

Question 7

what was the procedure of Sperry’s study? describe two different experiments conducted on the participants

Answer 7

participants gazed at a focal point in the middle of a screen. slides were projected either side of the focal point for 1/10 of a second.
Procedure 2: a picture was flashed to either the left visual field or the right visual field and asked to describe it.
Procedure 7: asked to name the object they held.

Question 8

what were the results of Sperry’s study?

Answer 8

procedure 2: particiapnts could only describe objects flashed to the RVF as this information is processed by Left hemisphere and the left hemisphere is responsible for language.

Procedure 7: Only objects held in the right hand could be named.

Question 9

Sperry’s conclusions

Answer 9

people with split brains have two seperate visual inner worlds, each with its own train of visual images. Split brain patients have a lack of cross integration where the second hemisphere does not know what the first hemisphere has been doing. Split brain patients seem to have two independent streams of consciousness.

Question 10

GRAVE sperry

Answer 10

G - Small sample sizes are not representative of wider population.
R - more recent split brain research has contradicted previous research. case studies have shown that people can use right hemisphere for language.
V - the study lacks mundane realism as people as people are not usually asked to look at one visual field. in everyday life, people with split brains can use both their eyes to deal with incoming information.

Question 11

Why is Sperry’s study reductionist?

Answer 11

sperry suggested that we use certain hemispheres for particular tasks. However, most tasks involve a mixture of left and right hemispheres.
there are also differences in lateralisation in people who dont speak english. for example, japanese people use their right hemisphere more for language. there are differences in lateralisation between genders too

Question 12

what does the inferior forntal gyrus do?
what behaviours is the ventral striatum linked to?

Answer 12

the inferior frontal gyrus is in the frontal lobe and it helps us inhibit or delay repsonses i.e avoid temptation and delay gratification

the ventral striatum is located deep within the celebral hemispheres of the brain. it is the ‘reward hub’ of the brain and is linked to the desire for immediate rewards.

Question 13

what is the aim for caseys study?

Answer 13

to see whether the ability to delay gratification in childhood would continue into adulthood.

Question 14

what was the research method and variables in Caseys study

Answer 14

• Quasi experiment and longitudunal study
  IV - high delayer (resisted the marshmallow at 4 years old and scored very high on the self control questionnaire in their 20’s and 30’s) and low delayers (did not resist the marshmallow at 4 years old and scored very low on the self control questionnaire in their 20’s and 30’s)
  DV - accuracy in gratification tests and fMRI activity readings.

Question 15

what was the sample for Casey’s study?

Answer 15

the sample was drawn from participants who at age 4 completed the delay of gratification marshmallow test.
experiment 1: 59 participants, mixed gender
experiment 2: 27 participants., mixed gender

Question 16

what did Casey mean by hot and cold stimuli

Answer 16

cool stimuli are things we feel neutral towards. Hot stimuli are things that are tempting to us.
One way in which some people make themselves able to resist temptation is by ‘cooling’. so we see a marshmellow, but instead of thinking of its ‘hot’ properties, we think of its ‘cold’ properties to make it less tempting

Question 17

what was the procedure for Casey’s experiment 1?

Answer 17

pictures of multiple faces flashed for 500 milliseconds, followed by 1 second intebral between faces. participants were given instructions on when not to press a button. this was used to assess the influence of tempting social cues.
hot tasks = fearful and smiley faces
cold tasks = male and female faces

Question 18

what were the results for Caseys experiment 1?

Answer 18

Low and high delayers had similar accuracy on the ‘cool’ task. Low delayers performed worse on the “hot” task than the high delayers. low delayers found it difficult not to press the button when they are shown a smiley face even though they had been instructed not to.

Question 19

what was the procedure for caseys experiment 2?

Answer 19

participants were scanned using an fMRI whilst completing a hot and cold version of the no/no go task. again each face was presented for 500 milliseconds but the intervals ranged from 2-14.5 seconds. reaction times and accuracy were recorded.

Question 20

results for Caseys experiment 2?

Answer 20

low delayers made more mistakes than high delayers in the hot task as in experiment 1. the fMRI showed low delayers had less activity in the inferior frontal gyrus during no/go trials compared to high delayers
the ventral striatum showed more activity in low delayers compared to high delayer

Question 21

conclusion of casey

Answer 21

the ventral striatum, the reward hub of the brain is more active in low delayers. the inferior frontal gyrus is less active in low delayers.

Question 22

GRAVE casey

Answer 22

G - mixed gender, more representative
R - standardised procedure, involving each participant being given the same go/no go task under controlled conditions. This makes the study replicable and reliable.
A
V - low ecological validity as the go/no go task was not like delaying gratification in real life.
E

Question 23

similarities and differences between Casey and Sperry

Answer 23

• both are quasi experiments. Sperry used people who already went through commissurotomy. Casey used low/high delayer groups which happened naturally.
• both have low ecological validity, In Sperry, its not a regular activity to ask people to identify objects appearing in a specific visual field. In Casey, the no/no go tasks are not similar to delaying gratification in real life.
• Casey is a longitudinal study spanning for 40 years since the 1960s whereas Sperry is a snapshot study.

Question 24

what does the visual cortex do?
what is binocular vision?
what is depth perception?

Answer 24

the visual cortex of the brain processes visual information
binocular vision is seeing things with both eyes
depth perception is the visual ability to percieve the wrold in three dimensions and the distance of an object.

Question 25

what is the aim of Blakemore and Coopers study?

Answer 25

to see whether kittens who are raised with only vertical or horizontal lines behave differently and also if this affects the neurons in their visual cortex?

Question 26

what was the research method and design in Blakemore and Coopers study?

Answer 26

Lab experiment an independent measures design - half the kittens were put in a cylinder with vertical stripes and the other in horizontal stripes.

Question 27

what was the sample in Blakemore and Coopers study?

Answer 27

Lab raised kittens that were housed in complete darkness until 2 weeks of age.

Question 28

what was the IV and DV in Blakemore and Coopers study?

Answer 28

IV - was whether the kittens were raised in a horizontal or vertical environment DV - was their visuometer behaviour once they were placed in a normal environment. For example, whether horizontally raised kittens could detect vertically alligned objects.

Question 29

what was the prcedure for Blakemore and Cooper

Answer 29

from the age of two weeks, the kitten was put inside a tall cylinder covered with either vertical or horizontal black and white stripes for 5 hours a day. the kittens wire whide collars that restricted their own field. this routine stopped when the kittens were 5 months old and they were graduallt introduced to a small normal room. their visual reactions were observed and recorded. at 7.5 months, 2 of the kittens from the vertical and horizontal conditions were anaesthesised so the neurons in their visual cortex could be examined.

Question 30

what were the findings of Blakemore and Coopers study from the observations of the kittens behaviour?

Answer 30

at first, the kittens raised in the horizontal environment could not detect vertically alligned objects and vice versa. they could detect horizontally objects if they were raised in the horizontal envrionment. the kittens quickly recovered from many of the defiencies and showed startled responses and visual placing and would jump with ease from chair to floor, but there were permanent defects such as clumsy or jerky movements.

Question 31

what were the findings of the neuropsychological examination in Blakemore and Cooper?

Answer 31

the kitten that was reared with vertical lines had neurons that only responded to vertical images. same thing happened to the horizontal kitten. about 75% of cells in both cats were clearly binocular and in almost every way the responses were like that of a normal kitten.

Question 32

what were the conclusions of Blakemore and Cooper's study?

Answer 32

visual experiences such as only being raised with horizontal or vertical lines in the early life of kittens can change their brain and behaviour.

Question 33

GRAVE for Blakemore and Cooper

Answer 33

G - humans are more complex than animals so its hard to generalise findings to humans R - as the study has a standardised procedure, makes it easily replicable and therefore reliable A - the study suggests that visual impairments e.g squints in children should be corrected quickly to avoid long term consequences. V - as the researched made sure that the kittens couldnt see their own body by putting the collar on them, it increased their internal validity. E - multiple ethical issues can be raised from this experiment.

Question 34

what is the role of the hippocampus in the brain? why was maguire interested in studying the hippocampus in taxi drivers?

Answer 34

the hippocampus plays an important rols in memories. London taxi drivers take a knowledge test to remember all routes in london as the hippocampus in involved in spatial memory and navigation, maguire wanted to see if it was different in normal people compared to taxi drivers.

Question 35

what is brain plasticity?

Answer 35

brain plasticity is the brains tendency to change and adapt as a result of new experience and learning.

Question 36

what was maguire's aim?

Answer 36

to see whether there is a difference in hippocampal volume between taxi drivers and other people

Question 37

what was the sample of maguire's study?

Answer 37

the experimental group of 16 taxi drivers were all male, healthy and right handed. the control group who didnt drive taxis were matched in terms of gender, health and handednes.

Question 38

IV and DV and type of design and research method for maguire

Answer 38

Maguires was a quasi because the IV on whether the person was a taxi driver or not naturally occured. the DV was the volume of the hippocampu including anterior, and posterior regions measured by MRI scans using 2 techniques, VBM and pixel counting.

Question 39

what is grey matter and white matter in maguire?

Answer 39

brain tissue is divided into two types, gret and white matter. grey matter contains the cell bodies white matter is made of axons connecting different parts of grey matter together.

Question 40

what was the procedure of maguire's study

Answer 40

maguire used an MRI scanner to calculate the amount of grey matter in the brains of the taxi drivers and the control group. VBM was used to calculate the volume of the grey matter in different regions of the brain pixel counting was used to measure the volume of anterior and posterior hippocampi in taxi and non taxi drivers. These were calculated by one researcher who was blinded to which results belonged to whom.

Question 41

what were the results of maguire

Answer 41

the posterior hippocampi volume of taxi drivers was significantly larger than control participants. the posterior hippocampal volume was positively correlated with the amount of time they spent taxi driving. the posterior hippocampus stores information about spatial relationships controls had a significant amount of anterior hippocampal volume.

Question 42

what are the conclusions of maguire;s study

Answer 42

the hippocampi of london taxi drivers is different to non taxi drivers. taxi drivers navigational skills are associated wth redistribution of grey matter in the hippocampus

Question 43

GRAVE for maguire

Answer 43

G - a range of taxi drivers were used eg. age, full time, part time. however, the participants were righthanded and male. R - the VBM and pixel counting was done by one person this helped achieve consistency. V - the researcher analysing the scans was 'blind' to each participants condition, i.e taxi driver or not. this stopped experimenter bias and improved validity.

Question 44

Similarities and differences between maguire and blakemore and cooper.

Answer 44

- maguire is slightly more generalisable as they use a wide range of different types of taxi drivers, i.e age, part time, full time. however, blakemore and cooper is not generalisable as they use cats. +both collected quantative data. maguire collected the volume of the hippocampi in the taxi and non taxi drivers where as B&C found the fact that 75% of the cells in both cats were binocular in almost eeryway and that their responses were like a normal kitten.