blakemoore and cooper Flashcards
research methods
- conducted the experiment under highly controlled lab conditions
- able to manipulate and control the type of visual environment in which each of the kittens were raised as an independent variable
data
- **quantitative **data was collected in neurbiological findings in their study
- this is an advantage as it gives scientific evidence of brain plasticity in the kittens and it enables research to be repeated and tested for reliability
- also collected qualitative data describing the kittens reactions for example the fact that they had no startle response and bumped into things around the room etc…
- qualitative data provides detailed descriptive examples of the differences observed in the kittens raised in the 2 different environments.
ethics
Exposing animals to a dark room for 2 weeks and in a visually depriving environment until 5 months is psychologically harmful for the kittens. However, B&C reported no distress from the animals. Furthermore, the study complied with the ethical guidelines for animal research.
- study was conducted within the strict ethical guidelines laid down by the home office for studies conducted on animals
validity
- high design validity: the study was conducted with a high level of control so the researchers could be confident that the findings were caused by the restrcted visual environment in which the kittens were raised.
- high concurrent validity: the findings are concurrent valid and each supports the researchers claims that the development of the kittens brains had been influenced by their environment. the researchers measured the effects of the restricted visual environments in which the kittens were raised using behavioural and neurophysiological measures
reliability
- high internal reliability: the procedure was done under controlled conditions and the researcher gave detailed descritpions of the procedure making it possible for this study to be repeated and tested to see if it had test-retest reliability
- low external reliability: the study only used 2 cats making it possible to have fluke results
sample
- evidence presented came from a small number of kittens and therefore it is possible that the findings would not be generalisable to all cats
ethnocentric
- the study is from comparative psychology and studied cats
this means that ethnocentricism is not relevant
nature
nature/nurture
- nature provided kittens with neurones with a preferred orientation
how does blakemore and cooper link to the biological area
- it is investigating the effect of the environment on the developing brain in cats
- it demonstrated the plasticity of the kittens brains as neurones originally primed to prefer either horizontal or vertical orientation would switch to prefer the opposing oritentation when the early visual environment the kitten experiemced seemed to require this adaptation
nurture
nature/nurture
- nurture meant that the restricted visual environment on which the kittens were raised in shows that nurture had a strog effect on how their brains developed in terms of orientation of their vision
- the kittens visual neurones adapted to the environment that the kittens experienced
reductionism
reductionist/holism
Very reductionist approach as it shows that the visual cortex is manipulated by the environment that the kittens were brought up in.
psychology as a science
- carried out controlled lab observations and experiments and these fulfil the scientific criteria of the theory
- it is possible to falsify what blakemore and cooper are saying about the impact of the visual environment on the visual neurones of the kittens by replicating their study with a new sample of kittens
key theme of blakemore and cooper
brain plastcity
how does blakemore and cooper link to the key theme
- demonstrated that in the developing brains of cats the visual neurones will change their preferred orientation such that a cat raised in a restructed horizontally orientated environment will develop horizontal vision only and a cat raised in a resicted vertically orientated environment will develop only vertical vision
