SAQ's BIO The Brain and Behaviour Hormones

Question 1

McGaugh + Cahill Aim

Answer 1

If you experience a traumatic event like a car crash the physiological stress system automatically gets going. McGaugh + Cahill wanted to study the effect of adrenaline on the creation of emotional memories

Question 2

McGaugh + Cahill Procedure

Answer 2

• had participants watch a series of slides while listening to a story
• Each group saw 12 slides which were accompanied by a very different story
• one group: story was uninteresting
• second group: a story what was very traumatic about a young boy who was in an accident and his feet were severed
• asked how emotional they found the story on a scale of 1 - 10. Two weeks after participating in the experiment the participants were asked to come back and their memory for specific details of the story was tested. The test was a recognition task that consisted of a series of questions about the slides with three options for them to choose from.
• to test the role of adrenaline, they repeated this procedure but gave the participants beta-blockers that interfere with the release of adrenaline
• hypothesised that if adrenaline is blocked, then the amygalda would not be able to produce emotional memories -> CORRECT

Question 3

McGaugh + Cahill Findings

Answer 3

• those that were in the more emotionally arousing condition remembered more than those in the boring condition
• the group that took beta blockers recalled the story with just as little accuracy as group 1
• by interacting with the amygalda, adrenaline plays a key role in the creation of emotional memories

Question 4

Zhou et al. Aim

Answer 4

wanted to see if androstadienone influenced human sexual behavior.

Question 5

Zhou et al. Procedure

Answer 5

a sample of heterosexual men and women and gays and lesbians watched stick figures walking on a screen and then were asked to guess the gender of the stick figure. While watching the screen, the participants were exposed to the smell of cloves. In the experimental condition, the cloves were mixed with androstadienone, and in the control condition, only cloves were used.

Question 6

Zhou et al. Findings

Answer 6

The findings showed that when heterosexual females and gay men were exposed to androstadienone, they had a higher rate of identifying the stick figures as “masculine” than the control group. In addition, Androstadienone had no significant effect on men or lesbian women. The researchers concluded that Androstadienone could be a pheromone that influences mating behavior in humans.

Question 7

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of hormones or pheromones

Answer 7

McGaugh + Cahill, no undue stress or harm

• psychological harm: should be protected from any more stress/harm than a participant would encounter in everyday life
• if unexpected distress does occur: therapeutic help must be provided

Question 8

Explain the effect of one hormone on human behaviour with reference to one study

Answer 8

Hormones are chemical messengers released from glands throughout the body (secreted by the endocrine system) which are implicated in behaviour.
adrenaline

Adrenaline: Secreted by the adrenal glands; responsible for arousal and the “fight or flight” response which triggers more hormones. Plays a role in emotional memory formation.

Question 9

Explain one effect of one potential pheromone in human behaviour with reference to one study

Answer 9

A pheromone is a chemical substance produced secreted to the outside by an individual and received by a second individual of the same species. Most commonly, pheromones affect sexual and mating behaviors. Although psychologists have not found actual pheromones in humans, there is research showing that some chemicals under controlled conditions may lead humans to show behaviors similar to what we see in animals. An example of a pheromone is androstadienone – found in male semen and sweat.

• androstadienone influenced human sexual behavior

Question 10

Explain the use of one research method in one study of hormones or pheromones

Answer 10

• McGaugh + Cahill
• lab experiment
  -experimental design gives rise to a cause-and-effect relationship between adrenaline and activation of the amygdala to create emotional significance of the story.
• enables researchers to control the confounding variables
• easily replicated because of its standardized procedure, allowing other researchers to test the reliability of the results.