Maguire et al (2000)

Aim
1. Determine whether changes could be detected in the brains of humans who have extreme experiences of spatial navigation.
2. Predicted that any differences in the brains of the taxi-drivers would show up in the hippocampus.
  1. The assumption that the hippocampus has plasticity.
Key Terms
1. Hippocampus
  1. An area of the brain which appears to be responsible for memory.
2. Quasi-experiment
  1. The IV varies naturally without being manipulated by the experimenter.
3. MRI scan
  1. A method that uses radio waves to obtain 3D images of the brain.
Procedure
1. 16 male taxi drivers who had passed 'The Knowledge'.
  1. All right handed
  2. Aged between 32 and 62
2. Control group were non-taxi drivers
  1. All right handed
  2. Aged between 32 and 62
3. Quasi-experiment
4. Analysed MRI scans using pixel counting and voxel based morphology methods
  1. Correlated with the length of time the taxi drivers had been licensed
Findings
1. The brains of the taxi drivers showed and increase of grey matter in the right and left hippocampus
2. The control group had greater grey matter volume in the anterior hippocampus
3. The posterior hippocampus was greater in the taxi drivers
4. No other differences were found between the groups
Conclusions
1. The more experienced the taxi driver, the larger the volume of his posterior hippocampus
2. The hippocampus increases in size over time
Strengths
1. The data collected is quantitative and was measured with precise equipment
  1. Should be reliable and not subjected to any biases
2. The scans are safe, painless and non-invasive
Weaknesses
1. Differences between groups could be due to some other factors
2. Differing experiences of the two groups could affect differences in the results.

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Maguire et al (2000)

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	Created by ItsEmilyMac almost 11 years ago