Maguire

Question 1

Aim of Maguire et al(2000)

Answer 1

To see whether the brains of London taxi drivers would be somewhat different as a result of their training and extensive use of spatial memory

Question 2

Type of study?

Answer 2

single-blind, quasi-experiment

Question 3

Voxel based morphology used to..

Answer 3

to measure the density of grey matter

Question 4

Pixel counting used to..

Answer 4

to calculate the area of the hippocampus

Question 5

Pixel counting revealed that

Answer 5

the posterior hippocampus of the taxi drivers was significantly larger, and the anterior hippocampus significantly smaller than that of the control subjects

Question 6

VBM showed that

Answer 6

the volume of the right posterior hippocampi correlated to the amount of time spent as a taxi driver

Question 7

Type of brain imaging?

Answer 7

MRI scans compared

Question 8

Findings?

Answer 8

Demonstrates that the hippocampus may change in repsonse to environmental demands and that the hippocampus is involved in long term memory formation and retrieval

Question 9

Conclusion

Answer 9

• The posterior hippocampus plays a key role in spatial memory and navigation
• The anterior hippocampal region may be more involved with perception and coping with novelty, and the encoding of new spatial memories
• The hippocampus facilitates spatial memory

Question 10

Replicable?

Answer 10

Study is replicable-> standardized procedure. Findings are also replicable -> more or less proven that spatial memory is localized in the hippocampus.

Question 11

Ecological validity?

Answer 11

High, participants are real taxi drivers.

Question 12

Construct validity

Answer 12

High, ‘cause there’s a direct relationship between the behaviour studied(spatial memory) and it’s effect on the hippocampus because the more experience the taxi driver had, the larger the volume of the right posterior hippocampi.

Question 13

Internal validity?

Answer 13

High- no demand characteristics and participants aren’t made to do anything so no participant bias. Single-blind study means no researcher bias. VBM + pixel counting, both scientific methods open to less interpretation.

Question 14

MRI?

Answer 14

Allows researchers to see the complete brain and makes it more credible, as the scans were compared

Question 15

External validity

Answer 15

Low. Population validity also low- androcentric and right handed sample bias + sample size is fairly small.