Biological Psychology

Question 1

What is the Biological Area in Psychology?

Answer 1

The biological area explores human behaviour and experience by looking at people as if they are biological machines. It also assumes all behaviour is caused by a physical/ biological factor such as, neurotransmitters, hormones, the structure of the brain and genetics.

Question 2

What is the split-brain procedure?

Answer 2

When the corpus callosum (bundle of nerves connecting the brain hemispheres) is severed to prevent seizures in people with serve epilepsy.

Question 3

What was the aim of Sperry’s study?

Answer 3

To show independent streams of conscious awareness possessed by each hemisphere and to show how each hemisphere has its own memories.

Question 4

What research design did Sperry use?

Answer 4

Quasi experiment, the IV was naturally occurring.
Snapshot study

Question 5

How many participants did Sperry use?

Answer 5

11 participants

Question 6

What sampling method did Sperry use?

Answer 6

Opportunity sample, patients were referred from White Memorial Centre in Los Angeles, USA.

Question 7

What materials did Sperry use in his study?

Answer 7

Tachistoscope, a device that displays images for a specific amount of time.
Visual stimuli.
Various everyday objects to select.

Question 8

Which hemisphere contains the language centre?

Answer 8

Left hemisphere

Question 9

Which hemisphere does the LVF link to?

Answer 9

Right hemisphere.

Question 10

Which hemisphere does the RVF link to?

Answer 10

Left hemisphere.

Question 11

Could participants say what symbol flashed in their LVF?

Sperry

Answer 11

No, the could only draw it.
Language centre located in left hemisphere.

Question 12

What response did particiapnts have when seeing a picture of a pinup girl in their LVF?

Sperry

Answer 12

Participants giggled but said they saw nothing. Shows emotional response from RH.

Question 13

If an object was placed in participants left hand, could they say what it was?

Sperry

Answer 13

No, participants could only make wild guesses or were unaware they were holding anything.

Question 14

Could participants recognise objects that had been placed in one of their hands and then given to their other.

Sperry

Answer 14

No, each hand ignored the other’s objects.

Question 15

Did participants report any problems in their everyday life after the split-brain operation?

Sperry

Answer 15

While participants had no change to their intelligence and personality they reported problems with their short-term memory and difficulties with concentration.

Question 16

What data did Sperry collect?

Answer 16

Primary and qualitative data.

Question 17

What conclusions were made from Sperry’s study?

Answer 17

Functions are lateralised in the brain.
Each hemisphere has its own memory.
The right hemisphere is ‘silent’, there is no language centre.
Split-brain patients have a lack of cross-integration.

Question 18

What ethical issues were there in Sperry’s study?

Answer 18

Informed consent- split-brain patients may have found it difficult to make decisions due to recent trauma of the surgery.
Psychological Harm- repeated testing is stressful and may of been first time patients realise they have reduced function and may feel embarrassed.

Question 19

Where does Sperry’s study fall on the reductionist/ holism debate?

Answer 19

Reductionist, behaviour down to individual hemispheres.

Question 20

Is Sperry’s study scientific?

Answer 20

is Scientific, controlled methods and lab setting.

Question 21

Where does Sperry’s study fall on the nature/nurture debate?

Answer 21

Nature, split-brain patients behaviour controlled brain function.
Nurture, patients learnt strategies to overcome the restrictions of the brain operation. E.g. explaining their hand was numb if they didn’t know what they were holding.

Question 22

Where does Sperry fall on the determinism/free will debate?

Answer 22

Determinism, brain connections determine the way we interact with the world.

Question 23

Where does Sperry fall on the situational/individual debate?

Answer 23

Individual, the two hemispheres of the individual participants controls their behaviour.

Question 24

What is gratification delay?

Answer 24

Being able to resist temptation until later.

Question 25

What is cognitive control?

Answer 25

Suppressing inappropriate thoughts or actions.

Question 26

What are hot cues?

Answer 26

Appealing features of something, such as, the sweet taste of chocolate.

Question 27

What are cold cues?

Answer 27

Less appealing/factual features of something.

Question 28

What was the aim of Casey’s study?

Answer 28

To see if the ability to delay or not was a consistent personality trait, and if the ability could be linked to differences in the the way the brain behaved.

Question 29

What was the first sample gathered in Casey’s study?

Answer 29

Children aged four from Stanford nursery, who were tested again in their 20s and 30s.

Question 30

What was the research design for Casey’s study?

Answer 30

Longitudinal study with two quasi-experiments.

Question 31

What test were participants first tested with?

Casey

Answer 31

Marshmallow test

Casey

Question 32

How many participants were part of the first experiment?

Casey

Answer 32

59 participants.
32 high delayers and 27 low delayers

Casey

Question 33

How many participants took part in the second experiment?

Casey

Answer 33

27 participants, one was later excluded due to poor performance.

Casey

Question 34

Which part of the brain involves cognitive control, gratification delay and avoidance of risky behaviours?

Answer 34

Inferior frontal gyrus

Question 35

Which part of the brain involves immediate gratification and rewards?

Answer 35

Ventral Striatum

Question 36

What materials were used in Casey’s study?

Answer 36

Two sets of male and female faces: emotional faces (‘hot’ stimuli) and neutral faces (‘cold’ stimuli).

Question 37

What conclusions were made from Casey’s study?

Answer 37

There is consistency over an individual’s ability to regulate behaviour.
These are important implications for cognitive control, e.g. being related to addiction.

Question 38

Was there a difference between high delayers and low delayers on the no go trials?

Casey

Answer 38

There was no significant differences.

Question 39

Which trials (cold or hot) were participants less accurate on?

Casey

Answer 39

The hot trials, 12.2% error rate, comapred to the 9.96% error rate for the cool trials.

Question 40

What was the ‘false alarm error rate’ on the happy face for low delayers?

Casey

Answer 40

15.7%

Question 41

What was the ‘false alarm error rate’ on the happy face for high delayers?

Casey

Answer 41

11.2%

Question 42

What data did Casey collect?

Answer 42

Quantitative

Question 43

What are some ethical issues with Casey’s study?

Answer 43

Psychological harm, low delayers may of had their self-esteem hurt and fMRI scans can be an unpleasant experience (noisy and claustrophobic)

Question 44

Where does Casey study fall on the nature/nurture debate?

Answer 44

Nature, being a low delayer or high delayer and nurture, children learnt to suppress the allure of certain stimuli.

Question 45

Where does Casey fall on the situational/individual debate?

Answer 45

Individual, Casey suggests that being a high or low delayer is innate and cannot be changed by the environment, meaning it is specific to the individual.