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Psychology: Themes Through Cores Studies > Biological Area > Flashcards

Biological Area Flashcards

1
Q

Biological Area

A
  • Brain function, hormones, genetics
  • Assumes that behaviour is due to dispositional/individual factors rather than situations or external factors
  • Behaviour is caused by our brains and genetics, which are hereditary
  • Humans are complex beings as hormones, genes and the central nervous system all interact with each other to cause behaviour
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2
Q

Biological Strengths

A
  • Deterministic: improves our understanding of the physiognomy of the brain and creates predictive power for behaviour
  • Scientific: laboratory experiments are used to investigate mental processes and establish a cause and effect
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3
Q

Biological Weaknesses

A
  • Reductionist: human behaviour being due to biology alone gives a simplistic level of explanation for complex behaviour
  • Ethnocentric: there are limitations to generalising findings to other cultures, as the studies are carried out within the western world
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4
Q

Biological Studies

A

Sperry - Split Brain Study

Casey - Neural Correlates Of Delay Of Gratification

Blakemore & Cooper - Impact Of Early Visual Experience

Maguire - Taxi Drivers

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5
Q

Sperry Context

A
  • Our brains have a left a right hemisphere
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6
Q

Sperry Aim

A
  • To investigate what happens when the two halves of the brain are disconnected
  • If the hemispheres perform differing functions and have their own memories and perceptions
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7
Q

Sperry Method

A
  • A quasi experiment as the IV of them having a split brain or not wasn’t directly manipulated by the researchers
  • They completed laboratory experiments
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8
Q

Sperry Sample

A
  • 11 participants who had undergone a commisurotomy (separates the corpus callosum between the hemispheres) to help their epilepsy
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9
Q

Sperry Procedure

A
  • Presented with visual information by covering one eye and focusing on a fixed point
  • On a projection screen they were presented with pictures on the left or right of the screen for 0.1 seconds
  • Presented with tactile information by a gap under the screen so they couldn’t see their hands but could reach for objects
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10
Q

Sperry Results

A
  • Pictures first shown to the left visual field weren’t recognised when then shown to the right visual field
  • Visual material in the right visual field could be described in speech and writing while visual material in the left visual field could be identified with the left hand only but not described in words
  • When two objects were displayed e.g. case and key, and asked to draw what they saw with their left hand they drew what was on the left half of the screen (case) but said they’d drawn what was on the right half of the screen (key)
  • Objects placed in the right hand could be described in speech and writing but when objects were placed in the left hand participants were unaware of the object in their hand
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11
Q

Sperry Conclusion

A
  • When the hemispheres are disconnected one half of the brain is unaware of what the other half is doing
  • The left hemisphere is for speech and writing and it communicates the visual field and experiences of the right half of the body
  • The right hemisphere cannot speak or write but non-verbally shows the mental processes in the left visual field and left half of the body
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12
Q

Sperry Evaluation

A
  • Method: strictly controlled experiment e.g. controls of the screen covering the hands and quick flash of the images helped to reveal the ‘lateralization of function of the two hemispheres (one side has a different role than the other). Also a quasi experiment
  • Data: qualitatively reported what participants could and could not do which helps with depth an understanding but not objective summarising or comparison
  • Ethics: informed consent was received, there was no deception or harm/stress caused to participants
  • Validity: the sample was small as the condition is rare and lacks ecological validity as people with a severed corpus callosum still live normal lives but the experimenter knew this and simply wanted to study them under a controlled scientific setting
  • Reliability: general trends were found in the brain function of split brain patients as similarities in participants imply reliable results
  • Sample: it was a small sample so studies of the ‘abnormal brain’ may not be generalizable to the ‘normal brain’
  • Ethnocentrism: brains are species-specific so the behaviour could be said to be applicable to everyone but cultural influences affect the development of our brain
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13
Q

Casey Context

A
  • Delay of gratification depends on cognitive control
  • The inferior frontal gyrus is involved in cognitive control during delay of rewards whereas the ventral striatum is involved in ‘hot’ situations involving immediate reward and choices
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14
Q

Casey Aim

A
  • To investigate whether the ability to delay gratification as a child predicts the ability of adults to control impulses and does it predict sensitivity to alluring social cues
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15
Q

Casey Method

A
  • Longitudinal quasi experiment as being a high delayer or low delayer is naturally occurring
  • Participants were followed from the age of 4 to their mid 40s
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16
Q

Casey Sample

A
  • 562 children aged four in a delay of gratification task
  • Then 155 in a self-control scales in their 20’s
  • 135 in 30’s doing the self control scale
  • Then 59 in the actual study and 27 agreed to have an fMRI scan
17
Q

Casey Pre-Procedure

A
  • The children when they were four were led to a room with a treat and told they could have it in that moment or wait 15 minutes and be given a second treat
  • A third of them were able to defer gratification
18
Q

Casey Cool Version

A
  • Was a cool version of the go vs. no go task where they were given a gender as go which they were to press the button for and one gender as no-go, which they weren’t to press the button for
  • They were projected 160 images of men and women one at a time for 1 second each face had a go and no-go option but they could only press the button for go
19
Q

Casey Hot Version

A
  • Was a hot version with an fMRI scan occurring of their frontal inferior gyrus and ventral striatum while they were given a target gender and shown 48 female and male faces either happy or fearful projected one at a time for 1 second
  • Each face had a go button but not a no-go button and could only press the button for go and their accuracy and times were recorded
20
Q

Casey Results

A
  • Participants that were low delayers as children found it difficult as adults to suppress responses to positive social cues
  • In high delayers the frontal inferior gyrus was active when accurately withholding no-go responses. In low delayers the ventral striatum was active in happy no-go trials
21
Q

Casey Conclusion

A
  • Participants with difficulty delaying gratification at a young age continued to show reduced self-control as adults and difficulty suppressing responses to positive social cues shown by activity of brain circuitries for motivation and control
22
Q

Casey Evaluation

A
  • Method: quasi as they were either low delayers or high delayers under highly controlled conditions in the go/no-go tasks and with the fMRI. Also being a longitudinal study helped researchers come to a conclusion and make good comparisons
  • Data: presented findings quantitatively in a numerical way so they could be compared across the conditions and easily summarised
  • Ethics: informed consent was received, there was no deception and no harm/stress caused to the participant
  • Validity – standardised conditions and high control however certain aspects such as the first go/no-go task or the fMRI scan are not ecologically valid as they aren’t part of everyday life but seeing the faces and emotions would be
  • Sample: reduced in size through out the years so may not be as generalizable
  • Ethnocentrism: investigates a species-specific behaviour, however the American culture may encourage temptation more than other cultures due to capitalism and consumerism
23
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Context

A
  • In a normal cat neurons of the visual cortex are selective for the orientation of lines and edges in the whole visual field but early visual experience can change this orientation
24
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Aim

A
  • To look at the influence of early visual experience on the development of the visual system in kittens
25
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Method

A
  • Laboratory experiment having an independent design
26
Q

Blakemore & Copper Sample

A
  • Kittens
27
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Procedure

A
  • The kittens were raised from birth in a dark room and at 2 weeks old were put into a special apparatus for 5 hours a day
  • The kitten stood on a glass table inside a cylinder (no corners no edges) which was covered with either vertical or horizontal black and white stripes
  • The kittens could not see their own body because they wore a collar that restricted their visual field
  • When the kittens were 5 months old they were taken out of the cylinder and taken into a well-lit room with tables and chairs and were observed
28
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Results

A
  • Within 10 hours the kittens could jump with ease from a chair to the floor, however they were clumsy when chasing moving objects and bumped into furniture
  • When tested for line recognition they showed ‘behavioural blindness’ – those raised in the horizontal environment could not detect vertically aligned objects
  • When 7.5 months old two kittens were anaesthetised while neurons in the visual cortex were studied – horizontal plane neurons did not ‘fire off’ in those kittens in the vertical environment
29
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Conclusion

A
  • The visual cortex may adapt itself to the nature of its visual experience during maturation and shows neural plasticity (changes influenced by the environment)
30
Q

Blakemore & Cooper Evaluation

A
  • Method: highly controlled laboratory conditions; able to make conclusions as they could manipulate/control the visual environment the kittens were raised in
  • Data: quantitative data through the neurobiological findings in their study and qualitative data through descriptions of the kittens reactions when raised in two differing environments
  • Ethics: was conducted within the strict ethical guidelines laid down by the Home Office for studies conducted on animals
  • Validity: effects of the restricted environments the kittens were raised in were measured using both behavioural and neurophysiological measures providing concurrent validity
  • Reliability: the study was conducted in controlled conditions and researchers gave detailed descriptions of their procedure which can be repeated and tested to establish test-retest reliability
  • Sample: small sample of kittens so findings would not be generalizable to all cats and would need to take caution when applying claims about the influence of environment on developing brain to other species e.g. humans
31
Q

Maguire Context

A
  • Based on previous research suggesting that the role of the hippocampus is to facilitate spatial memory and navigation
32
Q

Maguire Aim

A
  • To find out whether the hippocampi is the structure associated with spatial memory and navigation
  • Whether the hippocampi in London taxi-drivers will be structurally different from the hippocampi in non-taxi drivers
33
Q

Maguire Method

A
  • Quasi (natural experiment)
  • IV being whether it was the brain of a London taxi driver or non-taxi driver
  • DV being the structure and volume of the hippocampi
34
Q

Maguire Sample

A
  • Group 1: 16, right handed male taxi drivers aged 44, various years of experience
  • Group 2: 16, right handed male non-taxi drivers age-matched
35
Q

Maguire Procedure

A
  • MRI scans were carried out on brains of 50 healthy right handed male non-taxi drivers that had been age matched and were analysed to establish a comparison database of ‘average hippocampi’ using VBM
  • MRI scans of brains of 16 taxi drivers and of 16 matched controls were analysed by VMB and compared to this database
  • The control included was that the expert conducting the analysis wasn’t aware if the MRI scan was of a taxi driver’s brain or not to avoid demand characteristics
36
Q

Maguire Results

A
  • Increased volume of grey matter in both the right and left hippocampi in taxi drivers’ brains
  • Taxi drivers had greater volume in the posteria hippocampus and non-taxi drivers had greater volume in the anterior hippocampus
  • Correlational analysis found that the volume of the right posteria hippocampus increased as the length of time as a taxi driver increased
37
Q

Maguire Conclusion

A
  • The structure of the brain changed in response to environmental demand
  • The mental map of the city of London is stored in the posteria hippocampi in taxi drivers
38
Q

Maguire Evaluation

A
  • Method: the use of correlational analysis helped to establish a relationship between volume of grey matter in the hippocampus and time spent as a taxi driver
  • Data: both the VBM and pixel-counting analysis provided quantitative data about the volume of the hippocampus which establishes reliability and validity
  • Ethics: study was carried out according to the British Psychological Society’s ethical guideline
  • Validity: the volume differences in the hippocampus were established by two concurrently valid independent measures (VBM and pixel counting) supporting the validity of the findings
  • Reliability: highly controlled laboratory experiment which collected quantitative data shows that it could be repeated and tested to establish test-retest reliability
  • Sample: there is a gender bias in the sample and we cannot assume that female and male brains operate similarly in terms of spatial memory
  • Ethnocentrism: study was of species-specific behaviour as brain plasticity in the hippocampus in response to the spatial demands of our environment is affected by the anatomy and physiognomy of our brain

Psychology: Themes Through Cores Studies (6 decks)

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