Raine Flashcards
What is the aim of Raine’s study?
To see activity differences in brain structure of cortical and subcortical areas of the brain between NGRI murderers and a control group of non-criminals
How many NGRI prisoners were in the sample?
41
How many males were in the group
39
What design was this study?
Matched Pairs
What were the participants and the control group matched on?
Age, gender and Schizophrenia
What control was put in place for the NGRI participants?
They were taken off their medication before the study
What task did the participants do?
Visual targetting task aka continuous performance test
What timings were used in the study?
Practice test then 10m later injected then CPT and finally 32m until PET scan
What were they injected with?
FDG
What scan was used?
A PET scan
What was found about the prefrontal lobe?
NGRI criminals had lower activity/glucose metabolism than the control
What was found about the right Amygdala?
NGRI criminals had higher activity/glucose metabolism than the control
What was found about the left Amygdala?
NGRI criminals had lower activity/glucose metabolism than the control
What did they find about the Corpus Callosum?
NGRI criminals had lower activity/glucose metabolism than the control
What is an issue with the sample?
The study was only on 41 NGRI criminals and so can’ be applied to others
What is a strength of the design in this study?
The matched pairs means there are less participant variables making the results about brain activity more valid e.g. we know their age and schizophrenia isn’t effecting their brain activity
What is a problem with the matching in this study?
They couldn’t be matched on all traits e.g. handedness which might impact on their brain activity in the study
Is reliablity a strength or a weakness for Raine?
A strength as it is Standardised i.e. the tasks, timings and PET scan so you can easily repeat it to see if it is reliable
What is an issue with validity for Raine?
Low in ecological validity as the tasks/PET scan might not represent brain activity in real life situations
What is a strength of a control in Raine?
They were taken off their medication before the study which means we know that their medication wouldn’t be impacting on their brain activity
What is a strength of using PET scans?
It is Empirical as we can directly measure the glucose metabolism in the brain areas
Why has Raine got issues with protection from harm?
Yes- it involves an invasive injection
