Maguire

Question 1

One weakness of using a correlation

Answer 1

No cause and effect legitimately be identified. Here length of time as a taxi driver cannot be said to be the cause of volume changes in the grey matter in the hippocampus.

Question 2

Sample used

Answer 2

16 right-handed male London taxi drivers, mean age 44 (range 32-62). Been licensed for more than 1.5 years (mean time = 14.3 years).

Question 3

Function of hippocampus

Answer 3

Region of the brain that deals with spatial memory and navigation.

Question 4

Why taxi drivers and non-taxi drivers were used

Answer 4

Scans of taxi drivers’ brains were compared with scans of non-taxi drivers who don’t have the same experience to see if there were any structural hippocampal differences.

Question 5

The aim

Answer 5

To demonstrate that the hippocampus is the region of the brain associated with spatial memory and navigation.

Question 6

Weakness of sample

Answer 6

Sample was all drawn from London so cannot be generalised to taxi/non-taxi drivers from other areas.

Question 7

Two techniques used to analyse the MRI scans

Answer 7

1) Voxel based morphometry

2) Pixel counting

Question 8

One difference between MRI scans of taxi and non-taxi drivers

Answer 8

The volume of grey matter in the anterior hippocampus was greater in non-taxi drivers than taxi drivers.

Question 9

One strength of using correlation

Answer 9

It allows the researcher to see the strength of the relationship between two variables being measured. Here the variables were length of time as a taxi driver and the volume of grey matter in the right posterior hippocampus.

Question 10

Two controls

Answer 10

1) Both taxi/non-taxi drivers were age matched.

2) All participants were gender matched.

Question 11

Why it was important to use controls

Answer 11

To make it a fair test so the characteristics of the taxi/non-taxi drivers are similar.

Question 12

Two criteria used to select the taxi drivers

Answer 12

1) All right handed

2) All males

Question 13

Explain why Maguire couldn’t manipulate the IV

Answer 13

Because the IV occurred naturally: the participants were already taxi/non-taxi drivers.

Question 14

One effect the IV had on the DV

Answer 14

Taxi drivers had greater volume (grey matter) in the posterior hippocampus than non-taxi drivers.

Question 15

Explain what an MRI measured in this study.

Answer 15

Measured the volume of grey matter in the hippocampi of taxi/non-taxi drivers.