Biopsychology Studies

Question 1

Brain Scan Evidence of Localisation-Petersen-Method and Results

Answer 1

He used brain scans to demonstrate how Wernicke’s are was active during a listening task and how Broca’s area was active during a reading task

Question 2

Brain Scan Evidence of Localisation-Tulving-Results

Answer 2

A study of long term memory revealed that semantic and episodic memory reside in different areas of the prefrontal cortex

Question 3

Neurosurgical Evidence for Localisation-Dougherty-Method

Answer 3

He reported on 44 OCD patients who had undergone a cingulotomy-a neurosurgical procedure that involves lesioning the cingulate gyrus

Question 4

Neurosurgical Evidence for Localisation-Dougherty-Results

Answer 4

At post-surgical follow up after 32 weeks, a third had met the criteria for successful response to the surgery and 14% for partial response

Question 5

Research into Plasticity-Maguire-Method

Answer 5

She studied the brains of London Taxi Drivers

Question 6

Research into Plasticity-Maguire-Results

Answer 6

The taxi group had significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than the matched control group

Question 7

Research into Plasticity-Draganski-Method

Answer 7

The brains of medical students were imaged 3 months before and 3 months after their final exams

Question 8

Research into Plasticity-Draganski-Results

Answer 8

Learning-Induced changes were seen to have occurred in the posterior hippocampus and in the parietal cortex as a result of the exam

Question 9

Research into Plasticity-Mechelli-Results

Answer 9

People who are bilingual have a larger parietal cortex compared to those who are monolingual

Question 10

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Method

Answer 10

Sperry devised a general procedure in which an image or word could be projected to a patients right visual field. All the participants in this study has a spilt brain

Question 11

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Results-Describing

Answer 11

When a picture or object was shown to the participants right visual field, they could easily describe what it was. This didn’t occur if the image was shown in the left visual field

Question 12

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Results-Touch

Answer 12

Although participants could not verbally describe object in their left visual field, they were able to select a matching object from a bag of different objects

Question 13

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Results-Composite Words

Answer 13

If two words were presented simultaneous, one on either side of the visual field, the participant would write with their left hand the word on the left visual field, and say the word shown in the right visual field

Question 14

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Results-Matching Faces

Answer 14

When asked to match a face from a series of other faces, the picture in the left visual field was consistently selected. When a composite picture made of two different halves of a face was shown (one half to each visual field) the one in the right visual field was verbally described while the one in the left visual field was selected as the matching picture

Question 15

Circadian Rhythms-Siffre-Method

Answer 15

He lived inside a cave, devoid of all natural light and sound

Question 16

Circadian Rhythms-Siffre-Results

Answer 16

He resurfaced after two months in September, believing it to be mid-August. He biological clock became “free-running”

Question 17

Circadian Rhythms-Aschoff and Wever-Method

Answer 17

Participants spent 4 weeks inside a WW2 bunker, devoid of all natural light

Question 18

Circadian Rhythms-Aschoff and Wever-Results

Answer 18

All but one participants displaced a sleep wake cycle between 24 and 25 hours. The other participant’s cycle when to 29 hours

Question 19

Circadian Rhythms-Folkard-Method

Answer 19

12 participants lived in a dark cave for 3 weeks, going to bed at 11:45pm and getting up at 7:45am. The researchers sped up the clock, as a 24 hours day was actually 22 hours

Question 20

Circadian Rhythms-Folkard-Results

Answer 20

None of the participants adjusted to the new timings

Question 21

Infradian Rhythms-Stern and McClintock-Method

Answer 21

29 women with a history of irregular periods were involved. Samples of pheromones were gathered from 9 of the women at different stages of their menstrual cycles, via a cotton pad placed in their armpit. The pads were then frozen, and rubbed against the upper lip of the other participants. On day 1, pads from the start of the women’s menstrual cycle were applied, and this continued throughout the experiment

Question 22

Infradian Rhythms-Stern and McClintock-Results

Answer 22

They found out that 68% of women experienced changes to their cycle which brought them close to the cycle of their “odour donor”

Question 23

Evidence to support Sleep Cycles-Dement and Kleitman-Method

Answer 23

They monitored the sleep patterns of 9 adult participants in a sleep lab. Brainwave activity was recorded on an EEG and the researchers controlled for the effects of caffeine and alcohol

Question 24

Evidence to support Sleep Cycles-Dement and Kleitman-Results

Answer 24

REM activity was highly correlated with the experience of dreaming, brain activity varied according to how vivid dreams were, and participants woken during dreams reported very accurate recall of their dreams

Question 25

Animals Studies and the SCN-DeCoursey-Method

Answer 25

The SCN connections were destroyed in the brains of 30 chipmunks who were then returned to their natural habitat and observed for 80 days

Question 26

Animals Studies and the SCN-DeCoursey-Results

Answer 26

The sleep/wake cycle of the chipmunks disappeared and by the end of the story a significant proportion of them has been killed by predators

Question 27

Animals Studies and the SCN-Ralph-Method

Answer 27

He breed “mutant hamsters” with a 20 hors sleep/wake cycle

Question 28

Animals Studies and the SCN-Ralph-Results

Answer 28

When the SCN cells from the mutant hamsters were transplanted into the brains of normal hamsters, their sleep/wake cycle went to 20 hours

Question 29

Overstating the influence of Exogenous Zeitgebers-Miles-Method

Answer 29

He recounted the story of a young man, blind from birth, with a circadian rhythm of 24.9 hours

Question 30

Overstating the influence of Exogenous Zeitgebers-Miles-Results

Answer 30

Despite exposure to social cues, his sleep/wake cycle could not be adjusted, and consequently he had to take sedatives at night and stimulants in the morning to keep pace with the 24 hour world

Question 31

Spilt Brain Research into Hemispheric Lateralisation-Sperry-Evaluation

Answer 31

+Demonstrates Lateralised Brain Functions-helps us understand brain processes and function
+Strong Methodology-Very standardised and controlled-Increases validity
+Theoretic Basis-Has created debates about the degrees of function between the two hemisphere
-Cannot Generalise-Very small and specific sample

Question 32

Effect of Light on the Sleep/Wake Cycle-Campbell and Murphy-Method

Answer 32

15 participants were awoken at various time and a light pad was shone on the back of their knees.

Question 33

Effect of Light on the Sleep/Wake Cycle-Campbell and Murphy-Results

Answer 33

They found out that the participants sleep/wake cycle was deviated from their normal cycle, some by up to 3 hours.