Maguire et al

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

examine whether structural changes could be detected in the brains of people with extensive experience of spatial navigation. All taxi drivers have completed ‘The Knowledge’ test. See if there is a relationship between number of years driving and the anatomy.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

Quasi experiment
Participants NOT randomly allocated to the different conditions
IV is naturally occuring
-16 right handed male London taxi drivers
-Brains were MRI scanned and compared with 50 MRI scans of right handed males that didn’t drive taxis
In order to take part in the study participants needed to:
-Have taken and passed ‘The Knowledge’ test
-Had their licence for 1.5 years

-Controls were taken from an MRI database
Range of ages so age wasn’t a confounding variable
-Single blind study
Researcher didn’t know whether she was looking at the scan of a taxi driver or the control.

Question 3

Results

Answer 3

-Posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of the control group and the anterior hippocampi were significantly smaller.
-Taxi drivers had increased grey matter volume in the posterior hippocampus
-Results suggest that that a mental map of London is stored in the posterior hippocampus and is accommodated by an increase in volume tissue
-The volume of the posterior hippocampus correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver
-Maguire argues that this demonstrates that the hippocampus may change in response to environmental demands.

Question 4

conclusion

Answer 4

-Provided evidence for structural differences between the hippocampi of London taxi drivers and control participants.
-Suggest that extensive practice with spatial navigation affects the hippocampus.
-The posterior hippocampus is known to be involved in using previously learnt spatial information
-The anterior hippocampus is known to be responsible for learning new spatial information.