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Description
Flashcards by Dhara Bechra, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Dhara Bechra
almost 7 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Maguire et al. (2000) - Taxi Drivers | Significant body of research suggests that the role of the hippocampus is to facilitate spatial memory (navigation) |
| Aims & Research Questions | Find out whether changes in the brain could be detected in people who have extreme navigation experience.Find out whether hippocampi in taxi drivers are structurally different to non-taxi drivers. To investigate whether doing a job that demands navigational experience affects volume of hippocampus. |
| Research Method | Quasi-Experiment Lab setting IV: Taxi driver (brain) or non-taxi driver (brain) DV: Structure and volume of hippocampi. |
| Sample | Volunteer sample- consent gained. Group 1: 16 right-handed male taxi drivers, average age- 44, all licensed for more than 18 months, average time as taxi driver- 14.3yrs Group 2: 16 right-handed male age-matched, non-taxi drivers. |
| Procedure | Stage 1: MRI scan of 50 healthy, right-handed male non-taxi drivers aged 33-61 analysed to compare database of 'average hippocampi'. (analysed by voxel based morphomerty, VBM) |
| Procedure (2) | Stage 2: MRI scans of brains of 16 taxi drivers and of 16 matched controls were analysed by VBM and compared to database. Control: Expert conducting analysis didn't know whether each scan was of a taxi driver brain or not. |
| Results | Increased volume of grey matter in both right and left hippocampi in taxi driver brains, correlational analysis found volume of grey matter in posteria hippocampi increased as length of times as a taxi driver increased. |
| Results (2) | Taxi drivers had greater volume of grey matter in posteria hippocampi but non-taxi drivers had greater volume in anterior hippocampi, indicating redistribution of grey matter in the hippocampus. |
| Conclusion | Structure of brain changes in response to environmental demand. Mental map of London is stored in posteria hippocampi in taxi drivers. Normal behaviour can induce changes in structure of brain and this has many implications for rehabilitation after brain injury. |
| Evaluation | High control- eliminating extraneous variables Quantitative data collected Ethical issue- MRI is dangerous High EV- close to real life Replicable - standardised procedure. |
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