Maguire

Question 1

What did Maguire study?

Answer 1

• Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers.

Question 2

What did Maguire want to find out?

Answer 2

• Does experience of a taxi driver affect the hippocampus of London taxi drivers?
• Hippocampus plays a role in spatial memory and navigation

Question 3

What are some examples of hippocampal volume increasing?

Answer 3

1. Animals with larger territory, larger hippocampi
2. Small animals who engage in food storage, larger hippocampi

Question 4

How are black cab drivers tested?

Answer 4

• Required to have detailed knowledge of 25,000 streets within a 6 mile radius of Charing Cross.
• Given a written test on 80 routes, interviewed on other 240.

Question 5

What were the aims?

Answer 5

• To investigate the role of the hippocampus in navigational and spatial skills, extent to which brain shows plasticity exposed to extensive navigational experience.
• Correlation between time as a taxi driver and grey matter volume.

Question 6

What was the sample of the main study?

Answer 6

• 16 licensed taxi drivers, London, all right-handed, varied ages
• Healthy medical, neurological, psychiatric profiles.

Question 7

What was the sample of the comparison group?

Answer 7

• 50 control participants, MRI scan database from same unit, all male.

Question 8

What were the IV’s?

Answer 8

• Taxi driver
• No taxi driver

Question 9

What was the DV?

Answer 9

• Volume of hippocampus

Question 10

What were the research methods?

Answer 10

• Matched pairs design
• Independent measures design
• Quasi experiment

Question 11

What was the procedure (Voxel-based morphometry)?

Answer 11

• Identifies differences in density of grey matter in different parts of the brain.

Question 12

What was the procedure (Pixel Counting)?

Answer 12

• Pixel is a single point on a graphic image. The person counting pixels was ‘blind’ to whether the brain belonged to a taxi driver or not. Pixels counted on photographic slices. Pixels counted for the anterior, posterior, and body of the hippocampus.

Question 13

What were some controls?

Answer 13

• Same scanner used for all participants
• Hippocampal volume adjusted to size of brain
• Single blind experiment

Question 14

What were some results?

Answer 14

• Taxi drivers have greater grey matter volume in posterior right hippocampus.
• Control group have greater volume in anterior hippocampus.
• Longer time spent as a taxi driver, higher grey matter density, strong positive correlation.

Question 15

What was a conclusion?

Answer 15

• More experienced driver, greater grey matter volume.