Biological Psychology Flashcards
Sperry, Casey, Blakemore & Cooper, Maguire
What is the Biological Area in Psychology?
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.
What is the split-brain procedure?
When the corpus callosum (bundle of nerves connecting the brain hemispheres) is severed to prevent seizures in people with serve epilepsy.
What was the aim of Sperry’s study?
To show independent streams of conscious awareness possessed by each hemisphere and to show how each hemisphere has its own memories.
What research design did Sperry use?
Quasi experiment, the IV was naturally occurring.
Snapshot study
How many participants did Sperry use?
11 participants
What sampling method did Sperry use?
Opportunity sample, patients were referred from White Memorial Centre in Los Angeles, USA.
What materials did Sperry use in his study?
Tachistoscope, a device that displays images for a specific amount of time.
Visual stimuli.
Various everyday objects to select.
Which hemisphere contains the language centre?
Left hemisphere
Which hemisphere does the LVF link to?
Right hemisphere.
Which hemisphere does the RVF link to?
Left hemisphere.
Could participants say what symbol flashed in their LVF?
Sperry
No, the could only draw it.
Language centre located in left hemisphere.
What response did particiapnts have when seeing a picture of a pinup girl in their LVF?
Sperry
Participants giggled but said they saw nothing. Shows emotional response from RH.
If an object was placed in participants left hand, could they say what it was?
Sperry
No, participants could only make wild guesses or were unaware they were holding anything.
Could participants recognise objects that had been placed in one of their hands and then given to their other.
Sperry
No, each hand ignored the other’s objects.
Did participants report any problems in their everyday life after the split-brain operation?
Sperry
While participants had no change to their intelligence and personality they reported problems with their short-term memory and difficulties with concentration.
What data did Sperry collect?
Primary and qualitative data.
What conclusions were made from Sperry’s study?
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.
What ethical issues were there in Sperry’s study?
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.
Where does Sperry’s study fall on the reductionist/ holism debate?
Reductionist, behaviour down to individual hemispheres.
Is Sperry’s study scientific?
is Scientific, controlled methods and lab setting.
Where does Sperry’s study fall on the nature/nurture debate?
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.
Where does Sperry fall on the determinism/free will debate?
Determinism, brain connections determine the way we interact with the world.
Where does Sperry fall on the situational/individual debate?
Individual, the two hemispheres of the individual participants controls their behaviour.
What is gratification delay?
Being able to resist temptation until later.
What is cognitive control?
Suppressing inappropriate thoughts or actions.
What are hot cues?
Appealing features of something, such as, the sweet taste of chocolate.
What are cold cues?
Less appealing/factual features of something.
What was the aim of Casey’s study?
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.
What was the first sample gathered in Casey’s study?
Children aged four from Stanford nursery, who were tested again in their 20s and 30s.
What was the research design for Casey’s study?
Longitudinal study with two quasi-experiments.
What test were participants first tested with?
Casey
Marshmallow test
Casey
How many participants were part of the first experiment?
Casey
59 participants.
32 high delayers and 27 low delayers
Casey
How many participants took part in the second experiment?
Casey
27 participants, one was later excluded due to poor performance.
Casey
Which part of the brain involves cognitive control, gratification delay and avoidance of risky behaviours?
Inferior frontal gyrus
Which part of the brain involves immediate gratification and rewards?
Ventral Striatum
What materials were used in Casey’s study?
Two sets of male and female faces: emotional faces (‘hot’ stimuli) and neutral faces (‘cold’ stimuli).
What conclusions were made from Casey’s study?
There is consistency over an individual’s ability to regulate behaviour.
These are important implications for cognitive control, e.g. being related to addiction.
Was there a difference between high delayers and low delayers on the no go trials?
Casey
There was no significant differences.
Which trials (cold or hot) were participants less accurate on?
Casey
The hot trials, 12.2% error rate, comapred to the 9.96% error rate for the cool trials.
What was the ‘false alarm error rate’ on the happy face for low delayers?
Casey
15.7%
What was the ‘false alarm error rate’ on the happy face for high delayers?
Casey
11.2%
What data did Casey collect?
Quantitative
What are some ethical issues with Casey’s study?
Psychological harm, low delayers may of had their self-esteem hurt and fMRI scans can be an unpleasant experience (noisy and claustrophobic)
Where does Casey study fall on the nature/nurture debate?
Nature, being a low delayer or high delayer and nurture, children learnt to suppress the allure of certain stimuli.
Where does Casey fall on the situational/individual debate?
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.
