Raine(1997) Classic Study

Question 1

What was the aim?

Answer 1

To see if there was a difference between murderers who pleaded not guilty by reasons of insanity and non-murderers

Question 2

What was the independent variable?

Answer 2

Whether the participant is an offender pleading not guilty by reasons of insanity (NGRI) to murder, or a non-murderer in the control group

Question 3

What is a confounding variable?

Answer 3

A variable that effect other variables in a way that produces spurious or distorted associations between two variables

Question 4

How many participants?
How many were violent criminals and how many in the control group?

Answer 4

• 82 overall in the study
• 41 violent criminals and 41 controls

Question 5

What was the average age of the participants in the study?

Answer 5

34.3 years old

Question 6

6 people from each group had which mental illness?

Answer 6

Schizophrenia

Question 7

What was the number from each gender in the NGRI group?

Answer 7

39 men and 2 women

Question 8

23 of the NGRI group had what?

Answer 8

Brain damage

Question 9

How many of the NGRI group had a history of drug abuse?

Answer 9

3

Question 10

2 of the NGRI group had…?

Answer 10

Epilepsy

Question 11

7 of the NGRI group had…..?

Answer 11

Emotional or learning disorders

Question 12

What were the controls of the study

Answer 12

People of the same age and sex with no history of crime or mental illness, except 6 controls who had schizophrenia

Question 13

What should the NGRIs be described as?

Answer 13

An opportunity sample

Question 14

What is the procedure?

Answer 14

• Tested at the university of California
• Each participant was injected with a glucose tracer and then performed the Continuous Performance Task (CPT) for 32 minutes.
• Then the PET scan was carried out

Question 15

What were the experimental controls Raine used in his procedure? (2 examples)

Answer 15

• The participants were allowed to practice the CPT ten minutes before the glucose tracer was injected to make sure they were equally familiar with it
• He made sure none of the participants (NGRIs or controls) were on medication; the NGRIs had been kept medication free for 2 weeks before the PET scan

Question 16

3 strengths of the study are….?

Answer 16

• Largest sample yet subjected to brain imagery for this purpose
• Includes control group
• Looks at different areas of the brain associated with aggression

Question 17

3 weaknesses of the study are….?

Answer 17

• The findings only appliaple to this group of murderers pleading NGRI, not to all violence/aggression
• Doesn’t show the cause of these brain deficits
• The PET images are not particularly clear

Question 18

What were the 2 main areas in the NGRI groups brain that showed less activity?
What are each of those areas functions?

Answer 18

The frontal lobe - associated with rational thinking, self-restraint and memory
The parietal lobe - associated with abstract thinking such as “morality” or “justice”

Question 19

Correlation=?

Answer 19

Relationship NOT cause

Question 20

Where in the sub-cortical region did the NGRIs have less activity?

Answer 20

The corpus collosum

Question 21

What is the role of the corpus collosum?

Answer 21

Long term planning- it is the “bridge” of merge fibres connecting the brains two hemispheres

Question 22

Was there more or less activity on the right side on the amygdala, thalamus and MTL/hippocampus?

Answer 22

More on the right and less on the left

Question 23

What do the amygdala, thalamus and MTL/hippocampus have in common? (CLUE: when there is more activity on the right side what happens)

Answer 23

When there is more activity on the right side, these are the areas of the brain that are associated with aggression in animals.

Question 24

What can prefrontal deficits do?

Answer 24

They might make someone more impulsive and emotional

Question 25

What can deficits in the lambic system do?

Answer 25

They might make someone aggressive, find it hard to learn from their mistakes or understand their emotions

Question 26

What do deficits in the corpus collosum do?

Answer 26

They make it harder for the brains hemispheres to communicate, making it difficult to think through long term consequences and make decisions

Question 27

What do deficits in the parietal lobe, amygdala and hippocampus cause?

Answer 27

They can make it harder for someone to judge social situations, leading them to overreact

Question 28

What is a PET, what does it do and how?

Answer 28

It scans brain activity
It looks at levels of neurotransmission in the brain
It involves injecting the participant with a glucose solution that dissolves in blood. This glucose solution has been “tagged” with radioactive tracer which will make it’s way to the brain. This takes around 30 minutes