2254434
| Question | Answer |
| MAGUIRE et al | Physiological Approach |
| What were the 2 aims of the study? | To investigate whether changes could be detected in London taxi driver’s brains. To investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory. |
| Describe the participants in Group 1 | 16 male participants right-handed TAXI DRIVERS average experience: 14 years average age: 44 years old |
| Describe the participants in Group 2 | 50 male participants right-handed age-matched NON-TAXI DRIVERS |
| How was this study a quasi experiment? | Because of the comparison of taxi drivers and non-taxi drivers |
| What was the correlation analysis in this study? | The relationship between the brain scans and the length of the taxi driver's licences. |
| What did the scanner do? | Exposed the brain to a strong magnetic field Calculated the amount of grey matter in the hippo campus |
| What does a Voxel-based Morphology (VBM) do? | It measures the density of the grey matter |
| What is pixel-counting? | It counts the pixels of the images in an MRI scan |
| How many of the participants from each group were included in the pixel-counting? | All 16 participants from group 1 16 out of 50 participants from group 2 |
| What did the structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) do? | Acquire the structure of the brain |
| Why were the non-taxi drivers given a MRI scan? | To create a database of the average hippocampi |
| What were the MRI scans of the taxi drivers analysed and also compared with? | Analysed using VBM Compared with the hippocampi database form group 1 |
| Name the control of the study | The expert conducting the analysis did not know whether the MRI scans were of a taxi driver's brain or a non-taxi driver's brain |
| Name the 3 results of the study | 1. Posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger than the non-taxi drivers. 2. Anterior hippocampal was larger in non-taxi drivers than in taxi drivers. 3. Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver. |
| Name the 3 conclusions of this study | 1. The structure of the brain changes in response to environmental demand. 2. The mental map of London is stored in the posterior hippocampus in taxi drivers. 3. Normal activity can induce changes in the structure of the brain. |
| Name the two strengths of the study | Highly ethical: full consent and all participants were healthy Controls: participants were matched on age and gender |
| Name the 1 weakness of this study | Low generalisability: All participants were male and right-handed |
| Give improvements for this study and reasons | 1) Both male and female participants - If the participants were both male and female there may be difference between males and females' spatial memory. 2) Test other jobs involving spatial memory - other jobs may have had different results/responses, improve generalisability |
Want to create your own Flashcards for free with GoConqr? Learn more.