raine description

Question 1

methodology - what experimental design is this

Answer 1

quasi experiment

Question 2

methodology - what type of design is

Answer 2

matched pairs design

Question 3

methodology - what is the independent variable in this research

Answer 3

the ngri or not

Question 4

methodology - what is the dependent variable in this research

Answer 4

the brain differences

Question 5

participants -how many murderers were in the experimental group

Answer 5

41 murderers
39 men
2 women

Question 6

participants - what was the mean age of all the participants in the experimental group

Answer 6

34.3 years old

Question 7

participants - what had all the criminals been charged for

Answer 7

all been charged with murder or manslaughter and all had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetence to stand trial

Question 8

partcipants - where were all the murderers referred to and why

Answer 8

uni of california to get proof of a form of mental impairment that they apparently have

Question 9

participants - what were the mental disorders they found

Answer 9

schizophrenia
history of head injury or organic brain damage
history of psychoactive drug abuse
affective disorder
epilepsy
history of hyperactivity and learning disability
personality disorder

Question 10

participants - what were the participants instructed to do before the brain scan

Answer 10

to go medication free two weeks prior to brain scanning

Question 11

participants - what characteristics were the control group matched on

Answer 11

same sex and age
control group were not murderers all innocent
the 6 schizophrenics were matched with schizophrenics from the control group

Question 12

participants - what did the other participants in the control group not have

Answer 12

no history of psychiatric illness, no history of psychiatric illness and or in close relatives , and they were all not taking any medication

Question 13

procedures- how was the sample obtained

Answer 13

opportunity sampling

Question 14

procedures - what was used to study the active brain

Answer 14

pet scan
positron emission transmitter

Question 15

procedures - what was the injection that all the participants were given and how does it work

Answer 15

a tracer of flurodeoxyglucose
tracer is taken up by active areas of the brain making it possible to compare the brains of ngri and control groups

Question 16

procedures - what were the participants asked to do after having the tracer injection and why

Answer 16

all participants were asked to do a continuous performance task which was specifically aimed to activate the target areas of the brain so the investigators could see how the different areas functioned

Question 17

procedures - 1st step of the 3

Answer 17

participants were able to practice cpt task before getting the fdg injection

Question 18

procedures - 2nd step of 3

Answer 18

30 seconds before fdg injection participants started cpt

Question 19

procedures - 3rd step of 3

Answer 19

32 minutes after fdg injection pet scan was taken of each participant
10 horizontal slices of brain were recorded using the cortical peel and box method

Question 20

procedures - what did the intricate slices of the brain allow to be done

Answer 20

provides precise scanning techniques so that study could be replicated

Question 21

findings-what did the study find in the brain differences and where (reduced)

Answer 21

found reduced activity in the brain of the ngri participants in areas that are usually linked to violence
prefrontal cortex
left angular gyrus
corpus callosum
left hemisphere (reduced activity in amygdala , thalamus and hippocampus)

Question 22

findings - what did the study find in the brain differences and where (increased)

Answer 22

found increased activity in the brain of ngri in areas not linked to violence
cerebellum
in right hemisphere (increased activity in amygdala , hippocampus and thalamus)

Question 23

findings - study found no differences where

Answer 23

not linked to violence
caudate
putamen
globus pallidus
midbrain

Question 24

findings - performance of cpt task

Answer 24

both groups performed similar
therefore observed brain differences were not due to task performance

Question 25

findings - other differences that were noted done (odd ones)

Answer 25

handedness; 6 of murderers were left handed , had higher activity in prefrontal then right handed murderers
ethnicity- 14 of murderers were non white , comparison was made between them and white murderers and their was no significant difference in brain activity
head injury - 23 of murderers had a history of head injury , didn’t differ from murderers without head injury history

Question 26

conclusions- what evidence does these findings provide

Answer 26

evidence that murderers pleading ngri have different brain functioning to normal individuals

Question 27

conclusions - what did raine say these findings do not demonstrate

Answer 27

that violent behaviour is solely determined by biology alone and that social , psychological , cultural and situational factors