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Yr 1 Psychology AS OCR: Studies > Biological studies > Flashcards

Biological studies Flashcards

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1
Q

What are some of the main assumptions of the biological area

A
  • Explains thoughts, feelings and behaviour in terms of how it is caused by our physical body (genes, hormones and brain structure)
  • Every behaviour, emotion or thought process can be tracked back to a physical cause in our body
  • Study in as scientific and controlled way as possible, to understand where our behaviours come from
  • Because all behaviour has a physical cause, this means the key to changing behaviour also has to be physiological (take a drug or neurosurgery to cure mental illness)
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2
Q

what are the common research methods in the biological area

A

Lab experiments
Case studies
Scientific measures of physical factors (hormones)

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3
Q

What are the common issues with the biological area

A

Ethical issues
Mundane realism
Objectivity issue

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4
Q

What are the common debates with the Biological area

A

Nature = genetics, hormones
Reductionism = Simplifying behaviour
Determinism = Not in our control
Psychology is a science

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5
Q

what are the main strengths of the biological area

A

**Objective measurements e.g. levels of hormones, brain scans, activity measured in brain waves etc. - not bias by an observed opinion or open to interpretation

**Tend to have high internal validity because results are less susceptible to demand characteristics, socially desirable responses etc.

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6
Q

what are the main weaknesses of the biological area

A

**Lots of lab experiments so low ecological validity - tasks are often very artificial and don’t tell us about peoples real life behaviour

**Particular ethical concerns arise in research in this area e.g. informed consent, right to withdraw, potential for harm, long term effects of biological interventions

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7
Q

what are the two studies in the biological area

A

Sperry

Casey

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8
Q

In the Sperry study what is the key theme

A

Regions of the brain

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9
Q

what are some of the things the left side of the brain is used for used for in the Sperry study

A

words, language, logic, facts, math and science, reality based

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10
Q

What is the right side of the brain used for in the Sperry study

A

creativity, imagination, believing, religion, pictures and shapes

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11
Q

In the Sperry study what is the Corpus Callosum

A

Corpus Callosum - The bundle of nerve fibres that connect the two hemispheres of the brain, so they can communicate with each other

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12
Q

In the Sperry study what is Lateralisation of function

A

Lateralisation of function - The functions of the brain are divided between the two hemispheres of the brain. There is thought to be a ‘language centre’ in the left hemisphere

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13
Q

In the Sperry study what is Contralateral control

A

Contralateral control - Each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body - except for the eyes, where information from each visual field is processed by the opposite hemispheres

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14
Q

In the Sperry study what is Commissurotomy

A

Commissurotomy - When the corpus callosum is cut so the two hemispheres can’t communicate with each other. This is used as a last resort to treat very severe epilepsy

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15
Q

What were the aims of the Sperry study

A
  • To study the psychological effects of hemisphere disconnection in patients with epilepsy
  • To investigate lateralisation of function
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16
Q 
which of these were used in the Sperry study:
Natural/uncontrolled
Experiment/Case study
Quantitative/Qualitative
Ordinal/Nominal/Ratio, interval
Independent/Matched pairs
A

Natural/uncontrolled —> Natural (but in lab conditions)
Experiment/Case study —> Case study
Quantitative/Qualitative —> Both, quantitative was used to count how many tasks they could do and qualitative was used to describe the observation and behaviour
Ordinal/Nominal/Ratio, interval —> Nominal
Independent/Matched pairs —> Matched pairs

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17
Q

What was the independent variable in the Sperry study

A

The presence or absence of the split brain (corpus callosum cut or not)

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18
Q

What was the dependent variable and how was it operationalized in the Sperry study

A

DV = performance of tasks

Operationalized = naming of objects
=recognition of (pointing to) objects
=being able to find objects (in a bag)

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19
Q

What was the sample in the Sperry study:

how many participants

A

22 total participants
11 with severe epilepsy who had a Commissurotomy
11 as a control group

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20
Q

What was the target population in the Sperry study

A

Anyone who had the Commissurotomy in adults

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21
Q

What sampling method was used in the Sperry study

A

Opportunity sampling

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22
Q

In the Sperry study what was the device used to show the images of the objects to the participants and how long did they see the image for

A

A Tachistoscope was used to show the images tot he participants for a 10th of a second

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23
Q

What is a Tachistoscope

A

Participants sat in front of the Tachistoscope, the researcher dropped the image behind the Tachistoscope. it was seen by the participants for about a tenth of a second. but, participants had to look at a dot in their central view/ fixation point. Their hands were also not seen and under a screen (not able to see what they are drawing or holding)

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24
Q

Briefly describe procedure 1 in the Sperry study

A

Procedure 1 = Visual test

1) Participants cover one eye and look at the fixation point in the centre of the screen. An image is projected for 0.1 second to one side of their visual field
2) Same task was carried out but two images are presented, one in each visual field. Participants were then asked to:
- Say what they saw
- Draw what they saw with one hand (not looking)
- Point to an object in a display

25
Q

Briefly describe procedure 2 in the Sperry study

A

Procedure 2 = Tactile test

1) Participants hands are hidden from view. Participant is shown an image in one visual field.
- Participant is asked to find the object they saw from a bag
2) Participant is given an object in one hand
- Participant is asked to a)say what it is, b)point to the object in a display
3) Participant is given two objects, one in each hand
- Participant is asked to a)say what they were given or b)find it from a bag

26
Q

What were some of Sperry’s findings from the visual tests

A
  • participants could only say what they saw in right visual field
  • Participants could draw what they saw in either visual field…but would not know why they had drawn object from left visual field. Would name it as object from right visual field until they looked at their drawing
  • Participants could point to what they saw in the left visual field - but would not know why. they would think they were just “lucky”
  • Participants just said they saw a flash of light in the left visual field
  • When a picture of a naked person was shown to the left visual field, participants would giggle and blush but not know why
27
Q

What were some of Sperry’s findings from the Tactile tests

A
  • Participants are able to find the object they saw, but only with the hand on the same side as the visual field they saw it in
  • Participants are able to say or point to what they had held in the right hand. They could not say what they held in the left, and could point to it but thought they were ‘lucky’
  • Participants could only pick out the object with the same hand they held it in. The other hand would ignore it completely
  • When the experimenter touched/moved participants hand, they couldn’t copy what they did to the opposite hand
28
Q

What were some of the conclusions from the Sperry study

A
  • The two hemispheres of the brain operate independently - they usually communicate with each other, but can each function alone when needed
  • Each hemisphere has it’s own memory and information processing system
  • The brains ‘language centre’ is in the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere can not process language
  • Language is vital in identifying and retaining information about a stimuli - when the brain can’t access language it fails to identify stimuli at all
29
Q

which hemisphere of the brain controls the left hand

A

the right hemisphere

30
Q

which hemisphere of the brain controls the right hand

A

the left hemisphere

31
Q

What side of the brain controls the right visual field in both eyes

A

the left hemisphere

32
Q

what side of the brain controls the left visual field in both eyes

A

the right hemisphere

33
Q

Internal validity Sperry study

A
  • Affected by extraneous variables = background noise, and distracted
  • Although their tends to be less extraneous variables because it was a lab experiment meaning it was more controlled
  • 0.1 second and could have missed the image
34
Q

Internal reliability Sperry study

A

-Standardised and controlled - Variety of tasks carried out in the same way

35
Q

External validity Sperry study

A
  • Low mundane realism = wouldn’t happen in real life

- Different people being used to their comussirotomy.

36
Q

External reliability Sperry study

A

-High external reliability –> Nobody has done the study but each participant was tested for such a long time it was high in external reliability

37
Q

What is the definition of Delayed Gratification

A

Delayed Gratification - The ability to resist a reward in the present to gain a greater reward in the future

38
Q

What did Walter Mischel test

A

Walter Mischel devised the marshmallow test in the 1970’s to demonstrate that some children can resist temptation while others can’t.

2/3 children aged 4-6years old ate the marshmallow before 15minutes was up.

Whether or not they could resist depended on cognitive control

39
Q

What are the two cues in cognitive control

A

‘Hot’ cues - The aspects that increase the appeal of the reward

‘Cool’ cues - The aspects that reduce the appeal of the reward

40
Q

What did Mischel and Metcalfe (1999) believe

A

Suggested that there are two neurological systems involved in resistance to temptation:

The cool system - The inferior frontal gyrus located in the pre-frontal cortex
-Relates to cognitive control - involved in deciding whether or not to resist

The hot system- The ventral striatum - part of the limbic system (in the sub-cortex), which deals with emotion
-Associated with perceiving and processing rewards

41
Q

What is the key theme in the Casey study

A

Delayed gratification

42
Q

What is the key theme in both of the biological studies

A

Regions of the brain

43
Q

What are the aims of the Casey study

A
  • To find out whether ability to delay gratification was a consistent personality trait
  • To investigate whether people who were low delays on the marshmallow test at age 4
  • To investigate whether low and high delayers would show different levels of neutral activity in their inferior gyrus and their ventral striatum
44
Q 
In the Casey study which of these are used:
field or quasi experiment
pilot or longitudinal study
Secondary or primary
Nominal or ordinal
independent or repeated
A

field or quasi experiment –> Quasi experiment
pilot or longitudinal study –> longitudinal study
Secondary or primary –> both - Primary = Casey’s secondary = Marshmallow test
Nominal or ordinal –> both - Nominal = Marshmallow ordinal = Self-control questionnaire
independent or repeated –> independent measures

45
Q

What was the independent variable in the Casey study and how was it operationalized

A

High or low delayers (personality type)

From results of marshmallow test and self-control questionnaires

46
Q

What was the dependent variable in the Casey study and how was it operationalized

A

Neural activity of the participants (activity of IFG and VS from the fMRi scans)
Results of go/no go tasks (specifically the error rate = how many ‘false go’s’ were made)

47
Q

What was the control variable in the Casey study

A

Eliminated the average people and people that changes throughout

48
Q

What was the sample at the start and the end of Casey’s study

A 
Start = 562 children (4 years old)
155 participants (20's years)
135 participants (30's years)
End = 59 participants (40's years)
From Stanford university nursery
People were eliminated because they were too average or changed throughout the study.
49
Q

What was the target population in the Casey study

A

People with high and low delays

50
Q

What was the sampling method used in the Casey study

A

Opportunity sampling

from the Mischel marshmallow study

51
Q

Briefly describe the procedure of experiment 1 of the Casey study

A

Experiment 1
(Used nim stim photographs (multiracial, variety of emotions) and a laptop in participants homes)
-Participants were shown one male or one female face
-They were told this was the ‘Go’ stimulus (they had to press the button every time they saw a photo of this gender)
-Each photo is ‘one trial’. there are 160 trials per ‘run’
-Each photo appears for 1/2 a second, then there’s a pause of 1 second
-The trials are in a randomised order. 120 ‘go’ and 40 ‘no go’ in each run
-Each participant does 2 runs - 1 hot and 1 cool

52
Q

Briefly describe the procedure of experiment 2 of the Casey study

A

Experiment 2

  • fMRI (using E-prime software and a response pad)
  • 27 of the 59 participants in experiment 1 agreed to do this study. 1 was excluded for overall poor performance, leaving 26
  • only the ‘hot’ task was used
  • same stimuli and instructions
  • Pause between trials varied 2-14.5 seconds (a jittered internal interval)
  • 48 trials per run. 35 ‘go’ and 13 ‘no go’ in each run
  • Each participant does 2 runs (1 happy 1 sad)
  • Participants carry out these tasks while inside the fMRi scanner
53
Q

what were the findings from experiment 1 in the Casey study

A

Experiment 1
-No significant difference in response times (everyone pressed as quickly as each other)
-No significant difference in accuracy on ‘go’ trails (everyone pressed when supposed to)
-Small but non-significant difference in accuracy on ‘no-go’ trials (some people pressed when not supposed to):
*False alarm rate on cool trials = 9.96%
*False alarm rate on hot trials = 12.2%
Low delayers often pressed the button (wrongly) on the hot happy trials

54
Q

what were the findings from experiment 2 in the Casey study

A

Experiment 2
-No difference in response times and accuracy on ‘go’ trials (98.2% accuracy)
-Small but non-significant difference in the accuracy on ‘no-go’ trials:
*False alarm rate - low delayers = 14.5%
*False alarm rate - high delayers = 10.9%
Again the low delayers pressed the button wrongly

Brain scans:

Inferior frontal gyrus:
Activated on no-go trials when action is inhibited
Less activation in low delayers

Ventral striatum:
Activated on go trials when action is encouraged
More activation in low delayers on no-go trials

Left cerebellum:
Also greater activation on go trials (when participants correctly responded to go)

55
Q

What conclusions can be drawn from the Casey study

A
  • Delay of gratification is often a constant personality trait (but not always)
  • Low delayers find it more difficult to control their responses to hot stimuli —> this is because their ventral striatum is highly active, telling them to respond

-In high delayers, their inferior frontal gyrus is more active, so they are better at not responding when they shouldn’t - they have greater cognitive control.

56
Q

Internal Validity - Casey

A

+Carried out in highly controlled conditions so extraneous variables are controlled

+E-prime software was used so tasks were fully controlled

57
Q

External validity - Casey

A

Ecological = Does not have a direct equivalent to everyday life = low mundane realism because go/no go tasks are not like real life tasks

-Very high participant attrition - lots of people dropped out/ chose not to take part, so this may have left a a bias sample

58
Q

Internal reliability - Casey

A

+Highly standardised procedures (e.g. Timing of showing the pictures, use of nim stim pictures) so all participants are tested in exact same way

59
Q

External reliability - Casey

A
  • low external reliability, people with low delayers or high delayers will respond the same in a different study. But this is a longitudinal so will take more time

Yr 1 Psychology AS OCR: Studies (8 decks)

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