Blakemore & Cooper (1970)

Question 1

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was the background behind this study?

Answer 1

Blackmore & Cooper were interested in investigating brain plasticity.
- They were inspired by the work of Hirsch & Spinelli.
- They were interested in neurons in the visual cortex of the brain.

Question 2

(Blakemore & Cooper) Define the term ‘brain plasticity’.

Answer 2

How a brain adapts and changed according to what an individual does in their life.

Question 3

(Blakemore & Cooper) Define the term ‘visual cortex’.

Answer 3

The part of the brain that receives and processes sensory nerve impulses from the eyes.

Question 4

(Blakemore & Cooper) Define the term ‘startle response’.

Answer 4

The ‘backing off’ reaction of a cat when an object is moved quickly towards their face.

Question 5

(Blakemore & Cooper) Define the term ‘visual placing’.

Answer 5

When a cat puts its feet out to meet the edge of a surface.

Question 6

(Blakemore & Cooper) What were the overall aims of this study?

Answer 6

To investigate how being raised in a visually restrictive environment would affect the visual brain development of cats.
1. Compare the behavioural consequences of raising kittens seeing only horizontal / vertical stripes.
2) Investigate the neurophysiological effect on neurons in kittens’ visual cortex (brain plasticity).

Question 7

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was the sample for this study?

Answer 7

2 kittens from birth until approximately 1 year of age.

Question 8

(Blakemore & Cooper) Describe the procedure for the first 2 weeks of the kittens’ lives.

Answer 8

The newborn kittens were kept in a completely dark room.

Question 9

(Blakemore & Cooper) Describe the procedure for the first 2 weeks to 5 months of the kittens’ lives.

Answer 9

Kittens were put into a striped cylinder for 5 hours a day. They wore a black collar so were only able to see vertical/horizontal stripes.

Question 10

(Blakemore & Cooper) Describe the procedure for the kittens once they were 5 months old.

Answer 10

The kitten was taken into a well lit room with furniture to be tested on their behaviour.

Question 11

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was the research method for this study?

Answer 11

Lab experiment.

Question 12

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was the IV for this study?

Answer 12

The orientation of the stripes within the cylinder.

Question 13

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was the experimental design of this study, and explain why?

Answer 13

Independent measures design, as each kitten was exposed to a different striped cylinder.

Question 14

(Blakemore & Cooper) Describe the kittens’ initial reactions/their behavioral results when taken into the well lit room for the first time. (5)

Answer 14

• They navigated around the room by touch
• They were generally clumsy
• They had normal pupillary reflexes
• They had no startle response
• They had no visual placing

Question 15

(Blakemore & Cooper) After 10 hours in the well lit room, what behavioural results remained for the kittens? (2)

Answer 15

• Still clumsy in following moving objects
• Still bumped into objects/furniture

Question 16

(Blakemore & Cooper) After 10 hours in the well lit room, what behavioural results did the kittens recover from? (2)

Answer 16

• Visual placing returned to normal
  Startle response returned to normal

Question 17

(Blakemore & Cooper) How did the kittens differ from each other after the study, and how was this proven?

Answer 17

Blakemore & Cooper described the casts as ‘virtually blind’ to the opposite orientation to their upbringing.
They found this by experimenters shaking a rod in front of the cat and seeing if they responded. They found the cat only responded if the rod was shaken in the same orientation as they had seen in the cylinder. They found similar results using a striped perspex sheet.

Question 18

(Blakemore & Cooper) Explain the neurophysiological findings from this study.

Answer 18

Results from the scans showed that the visual neurons within the visual cortex had aligned themselves to match the environment the kitten was brought up in. There were little to no neurons aligned to the opposite direction (For example the cat brought up within the horizontal cylinder had neurons aligned within a horizontal arrangement).
This is because the cats had no need for neurons in the other direction and therefore these were moved elsewhere.

Question 19

(Blakemore & Cooper) What 2 types of data did this study produce?

Answer 19

Behavioural and neurophysiological.

Question 20

(Blakemore & Cooper) What behavioural data was collected from this study?

Answer 20

Qualitative descriptions of the deficits shown by the cats in the well lit room.

Question 21

(Blakemore & Cooper) What neurophysiological data was collected from this study?

Answer 21

Quantitative data based on the alignment of the visual neurons from the cortex scan.

Question 22

(Blakemore & Cooper) What was concluded from this study?

Answer 22

The difference between the kittens suggests that neurons can change their preferred orientation according to the stimulation they receive, matching the ability of the brain to respond to the features in its visual input.

Question 23

(Blakemore & Cooper) How could ethical considerations be defended regarding this study? (3)

Answer 23

• There was no alternative replacement to animals within this research
• They reduced the impact to the minimum amount of cats (2)
• They refined the procedure by only having the cat in the cylinder for 5 hours a day

Question 24

(Blakemore & Cooper) How could ethical considerations be criticised regarding this study?

Answer 24

There is not many practical applications of the research and therefore perhaps was not worth harming the kittens for.

Question 25

(Blakemore & Cooper) Does the concept of ethnocentrism relate to this study, and why?

Answer 25

Not particularly relevant here. We are looking at biological factors and the environment the kittens were in were not culturally biased.

Question 26

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does internal reliability influence this study?

Answer 26

The procedure was highly standardised and replicable due to the high level of controls.

Question 27

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does external reliability influence this study?

Answer 27

Only 2 kittens were used in this study but perhaps this doesn’t matter as we are investigating biological concepts.

Question 28

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does internal validity influence this study?

Answer 28

Seemed to be a good test of brain plasticity as the only difference in the procedure for the kittens was the direction of the stripes.

Question 29

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does population validity influence this study?

Answer 29

Possible problem with generalising beyond the species of kittens.

Question 30

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does concurrent validity influence this study?

Answer 30

Cats showed the same deficits in 2 separate tests to check their perception of the other orientation

Question 31

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does ecological validity influence this study?

Answer 31

Not a realistic scenario as the environment was so visually restricted. This doesn’t happen in real life.

Question 32

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does the nature/nurture debate relate to this study?

Answer 32

Nurture as brains can change in response to the visual environment

Question 33

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does the psychology as a science debate relate to this study?

Answer 33

Replicable, objective and falsifiable as very controlled, used quantitative measures and can be replicated to see if it is false.

Question 34

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does the individual/situational debate relate to this study?

Answer 34

Behaviour dependent on situation of cylinder orientation.

Question 35

(Blakemore & Cooper) How does the usefulness debate relate to this study?

Answer 35

Not really useful at all!