Flashcards
Physiological Psychology
Cards in this deck (34)
- 1What was the aim of Maguire's study?To investigate whether changes could be detected in the brains of humans how have extreme experiences of spatial navigation.
- 2Why did Maguire study the hippocampus?The hippocampus is the area of the brain that deals with spatial navigation and has a 'plasticity', meaning that the volume of grey matter can change in response to learning and experience.
- 3Who were the participants in the experimental group of Maguire's study?16 male, cab drivers in London who had passed 'the knowledge' training course and been licensed for at least 18 months. They were all right-handed, between 32-62 years old and had healthy medical, neurological and psychiatric profiles.
- 4Who were the participants in the control group of Maguire's study?A random selection of 50 scans from the structural MRI scan database at the same centre were the cab drivers were scanned. They were healthy, right-handed males aged between 32-62.
- 5What kind of experimental method did Maguire use?A quasi-experiment as the researchers did not manipulate the independent variable and simply used two existing groups; cab drivers and non-cab drivers.
- 6How did Maguire collect data?Through Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. These use radio waves to obtain 3D images of the brain and body tissue.
- 7How was Maguire's data analysed?Data was analysed using two different techniques; voxel-based morphology and pixel counting. The researchers carrying out the analysis were blind to the conditions of the study.
- 8What are three key (non correlational) results from Maguire's study?The brains of cab drivers showed significantly increased grey matter volume in the right and left posterior hippocampi. The control group has relatively greater grey matter in the anterior hippocampus.
There was no overall difference in the volume of the hippocampi between groups. - 9What correlations were found in Maguire's study?A positive correlation with the length of time as a cab driver and the volume of the right posterior hippocampus.
A negative correlation between the volume of the anterior hippocampus and the length of time spent as a cab driver. - 10Which individual was removed from the data used in the correlations of Maguire's study?A cab driver who had 42 years of experience. His results were in line with the others, however his experience was so much greater that it was decided not to include his data in this analysis.
- 11What did Maguire conclude?The more experience a cab driver has, the larger the volume of his posterior hippocampus.
- 12What is the issue with Maguire's conclusion?The difference could have been there before the individuals took the 'knowledge' and perhaps this predisposed them to jobs where navigational skills were important.
- 13What is the restoration theory on sleep?The restoration theory suggests non-REM sleep restores bodily processes that occurred in the day and that REM sleep stimulates protein synthesis which replenishes brain processes.
- 14What is the Evolutionary theory on sleep?The Evolutionary theory suggests that sleep serves a survival function by keeping animals safe from predators. Hibernation would be seen as an extension of this process.
- 15What was the aim of Dement and Kleitman's Study?To investigate the relationship between eye movements and dreaming.
- 16What were the three research questions formulated by Dement and Kleitman?1. Will people be more likely to report dreams if they are woken during REM sleep?
2. Can people accurately estimate the duration of their dreaming?
3. Is the direction of eye movement during REM related to dream content? - 17Who were the participants in Dement and Kleitman's study?7 adult males and 2 adult females
- 18What experimental method did Dement and Kleitman use?A Laboratory experiment.
- 19What did Dement and Kleitman ask their participants to do in order to ensure that extraneous variables were being controlled?To report to the sleep laboratory just before their normal bedtime and to avoid caffeine and alcohol on the day of the experiment.
- 20How was the participants brain activity and eye movement measured in Dement and Kleitman's study?Electrodes were attached near the eyes of the participant to measure the eye movement and to the scalp to measure the brain's electrical activity. The Electrodes were attached to an EEG machine which ran continuously throughout the night.
- 21What happened in the night for the participants in Dement and Kleitman's study?The participants went to bed in a quiet, dark room in the laboratory and were woken at various times during the night by a doorbell and had to speak into a tape recorder near the bed. They first had to state whether they had been dreaming and if they had, they reported the content of the dream.
- 22In reference to Dement and Kleitman's results, will people be more likely to report dreams if they are woken during periods of REM than during periods of NREM?Yes. People will be more likely to report dreams when in REM sleep, 152 dreams were recalled in REM sleep compared to 11 in NREM sleep.
- 23In reference to Dement and Kleitman's results, can people accurately estimate the duration of their dreaming?Yes. Subjects were woken randomly either 5 or 15 minutes into REM sleep and asked to decide whether they had been dreaming for 5 or 15 minutes. Participants were mostly correct in estimating how long they had been asleep for. Asking after 5 minutes, 45 correct answers were given (6 incorrect). Asking after 15 minutes, 47 correct (13 incorrect).
- 24In reference to Dement and Kleitman's results, is the direction of eye movement during REM related to dream content?Yes. Participants a pattern of eye movement had persisted for at least 1 minute, asked to describe their dream.
vertical - climbing ladders and looking up and down.
horizontal - watching people throw tomatoes at each other
vertical and horizontal - talking to groups of people.
Little/non - driving a car. - 25What is the corpus callosum?A bundle of nerves which connects the left and right hemisphere's of the brain, allowing information to be transferred between them.
- 26What are the functions of the two hemisphere'sLeft - ability to speak, understand language and reason things out.
Right - tasks such as drawing, spatial awareness and intuitive tasks. - 27What was the aim of Sperry's study?To study the function of separated and independent hemisphere's.
- 28Who were Sperry's participants?An opportunity sample of 11 participants who had already undergone a procedure in which the corpus callosum was removed in order to treat epilepsy.
- 29What was Sperry's procedure?He used a specially designed apparatus that allowed information to be presented to just one hemisphere. The subject had one eye covered. They centre their gaze on a designated fixation point on a screen and stimuli words or images can be flashed on the screen. For tactile tasks, objects can be placed in one of the subjects hands (screened from view).
- 30Why were the images/words in Sperry's study only flashed for 1/10th of a second?This is too fast for the person's eyes to move to allow information to be transferred to the other visual field.
- 31What were Sperry's 3 main findings in relation to visual fields (VF)1. Information sent to left VF (right H) only recognized by same VF.
2. Stimuli sent to the right VF (left H) can be described in speech and writing, if left VF say didn't see but can point to correct object with left hand.
3. If two objects flashed to each VF, will draw what seen with left VF with left hand but say he drew object in right VF. - 32What did Sperry's tactile tasks find?Objects put in the right hand (left H) can be described and named. Participants make wild guesses about objects put in their left hands (right H). However they can still select it correctly from a collection of other objects with the same hand.
- 33How did Sperry's results show that the right hemisphere was capable of complex tasks, although not able to express itself verbally?To was able to;
- Select similar items to a target item.
- Perform simple arithmetic operations.
- Understand both written and spoken words.
- Identify fair complex instructions.
- Show appropriate emotional reactions. - 34What did the emotional reactions of the right hemisphere suggest?If a nude picture were flashed to the right hemisphere the subject denies seeing anything but may blush or giggle. This suggests that emotional responses may be transferred across hemispheres. Possibly meaning there are other pathways present between the hemispheres.
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- AS - Level Psychology Flashcards on Physiological Psychology, created by Beckie Vautier on 18/04/2016.
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- Beckie Vautier
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