Maguire

Question 1

What type of experiment is this

Answer 1

Qusai experiment

Question 2

What was IV

Answer 2

wetjer a ppt was a taxi driver (i.e used spatail memory in his job) or not

Question 3

What was the desgin of this experiment

Answer 3

Matched ppts desgin

Question 4

DV

Answer 4

Volume of each hippocompaus measured in 6 areas : right and left and anterioir body and posterior huppocampi

Question 5

What did the expeirmental group consist of

Answer 5

16 right handed male taxis who have passed the knowledge

Question 6

What was the mean age of the taxi drivers

Answer 6

44 yrs

Question 7

What was the mean age of driving experince

Answer 7

14.3 yrs

Question 8

How was the experimental group matched with the control group

Answer 8

(men who did not drive taxis)

matched on age, age range, gender and handeness

Question 9

What does VBM stand for

Answer 9

Voxel based morphometry

Question 10

How does VBM work

Answer 10

measures the volumne of specific brain areas by comparing each brain area to a tempalte

(template was constructed using the MRI scans of 50 healthy male brains and working out an average of all the brains scanned)

Question 11

What does VBM identify

Answer 11

diffrences in the density of the grey matter in a persons brain

Question 12

Pixel counting

Answer 12

MRI scans were made of the brain by cutting 26 slcies that were 1.5 thick

Each slive lay next to the previous one and included all areas of the hippocampi (each slive produced a 2d pic

Question 13

What was the person doing the couting desribed as

Answer 13

“blind” they didnty know ehether a ppts was a taxi driver and also “blind” to the vbm

Question 14

What did the VBM show?

Answer 14

SIGNIFICANTLY more grey matter in both left and right hippcampi of taxi drivers compared to the control

(this difference was only in the posterir potion of both RH and LH)

Question 15

Results from pixel counting

Answer 15

The body ;H and RH had greater volume in the taxi drivers than the controls but this was not a significant diffrence

The anterior LH and RH had greater volume in the controls than in the taxi drivers

The posterior LH and RH had gretaer volume in the Taxi drivers than in the controls

Question 16

Where was the postive correlations

Answer 16

Time spent taxi driving and volume of posterior RH

Question 17

Neagtive correlation

Answer 17

Between time and the volume of the anterior RH and LH

Question 18

What were the conclusions

Answer 18

relationship between the hippocampus and the navigational skills

The diffrence between the experimetnal group and contril groups suggest the brain does change in response to experince (envionrmental demands) + brain plasticity

correlation with expereince in taxi drivers confirms the role of nurtyre in the devloplent of the biological system

Question 19

What was the aim of Maguire et al’s study?

Answer 19

To investigate whether changes (plasticity) could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.

Question 20

Outline the sample used in Maguire et al’s study.

Answer 20

16 healthy, right handed male licensed taxi drivers
- Mean age 44 (range 32-62 years)
- All participants licensed London taxi drivers for more than one and a half years and had completed the knowledge course
- Control group of 16 non-taxi drivers, matched on age range of taxi drivers

Question 21

Name a limitation of the sample

Answer 21

Sample does not include women or left-handed people

Question 22

Outline the procedure of the study

Answer 22

MRI scans were performed (by measuring soft tissue by exposing the brain to a strong magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed pictures of the brain).