Topic 4-The Brain

Question 1

Strengths of Laterisation Function

Answer 1

Harasty et al. (1997) - parts of the brain which process and produce language are slightly bigger in female brains than males
Rilea et al. (2005) - males were better at some spatial tasks,
Uses scientific methods

Question 2

Weaknesses

Answer 2

Rilea et al. (2005) - males didn’t always do better than females on spatial tasks
Sommer et al. (2004) suggested there wasn’t strong evidence that females used both hemispheres for language tasks

Question 3

Strengths of Damasio

Answer 3

Modern technology was used
Results are more scientific
Can be used to make predictions about the behaviour of people with brain damage in the frontal lobes

Question 4

Weaknesses

Answer 4

Unreliable
Information based on reports from over 150 years ago
Ungerneralisable
Gage’s brain damage is very unique
May not be able to apply to other patients with frontal lobe damage

Question 5

Strengths of Sperry

Answer 5

Lots of detailed information gathered by Sperry, improving the study’s reliability
Standardised procedures

Question 6

Weaknesses

Answer 6

Ungeneralisable-Only had 11 samples
Tasks which Sperry used were very artificial
Lacks ecological validity