Blakemore and Cooper's study Flashcards
What were the aims of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
- To compare the behavioural consequences of raising kittens seeing only horizontal or vertical stripes.
- Investigate the neurophysiological effect on neurons in Kittens’ visual cortex (brain plasticity)
What is brain plasticity?
The idea that the brain rewires itself according to your life experiences
What was the sample of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
2 Kittens from birth to one year old
What was the environment for the first two weeks of the cats’ lives in Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
They were kept in a totally dark room.
What was the environment for the kittens in Blakemore and Cooper’s study between two weeks and 5 months?
They were placed in a cylinder with either horizontal or vertical stripes for 5 hours a day and kept in darkness for the rest of it. They had to wear a black collar to stop them seeing their own bodies, they only had 130 degree vision.
What happened to the kittens when they reached 5 months old in Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
They were exposed to a normal environment with furniture and human contact.
What were the initial reactions of the kittens when placed in the natural environment in Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
They had no visual placement (were frightened when they reached the end of a surface. They didn’t have a startle response.
They showed behavioural blindness (Kitten raised in horizontal could not detect vertically aligned objects)
After 10 hours of exposure to a normal surrounding, how did the behaviour of the kittens change?
Most of the defects had disappeared, the kittens showed startle responses, visual placing and could jump with ease from the chair to the floor. However, some of their visual problems were permanent:
They always followed moving objects with very clumsy, jerky head movements
They often tried to touch things moving on the other side f the room, well beyond their reach
How old were the cats in experiment 2 of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
7.5 months
What happened to the cats in experiment 2 of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
They were anaesthetised and then paralysed, with their eyes open. Electrodes were then inserted into the primary visual cortex to take electrical readings from individual neurons. The visual neuron activity was recorded to how the optimal orientation for each neuron when shown bright sluts or edges of light.
How many neurons were recordings taken from in the cats in Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
125: 52 from the horizontally reared cat and 72 from the vertically reared cat
What were the conclusions of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
The difference between the Kittens suggests that the visual neurons can change their preferred orientation according to the stimulation they receive ,matching the ability of the brain to respond to the feature in its visual input. The rewiring shows the brain’s ability for plasticitty.
what were the results of the second experiment of Blakemore and Cooper’s study?
The cat who was only exposed to horizontal stripes had horizontal neuron orientation and the same for vertical.
Did Blakemore and Cooper’s study have Internal reliability?
Yes, it was very standardised and replicable.
Did Blakemore and Cooper’s study have External reliability?
Not really, It was a very small sample and any effect shown can’t be related to humans
