The Biological Area Classical study Blakemore and Cooper
The Biological Area Classical study: Blakemore and Cooper (1970) Impact of early visual experience Contemporary study: Maguire et al. (2000) Taxi drivers
How does the biological area explain behaviour? With consideration to the bullet points below, answer the following question: Define the biological area (4 marks) What key factors does the biological area think influences behaviour? What methods does the biological area use to measure behaviour? Is the biological area reductionist or holistic? Does the biological area assume we have free will or that our behaviour is predetermined?
How does the biological area explain behaviour? With consideration to the bullet points below, answer the following question: Define the biological area (4 marks) What key factors does the biological area think influences behaviour? • Biological mechanisms, brain functions, genetics and DNA, hormones, chemicals What methods does the biological area use to measure behaviour? • Highly scientific methods to understand biological processes, such as hormone release, brain activity, brain plasticity - f. MRI scanners Is the biological area reductionist or holistic? • Reductionist – all explanations are reduced down to one factor: biology Does the biological area assume we have free will or that our behaviour is predetermined? • All behaviours are predetermined by our biology – we have no control over this
Strengths of the biological area As the area is comprised of research which uses scientific methods (f. MRI brain scans for example) to measure behaviour… • What type of relationship can be established in the research studies? • What is the likelihood of: (a) Demand characteristics (b) Social desirable responses (c) Researcher bias (d) Objectivity • Does this make the results (a) valid (b) reliable
Strengths of the biological area As the area is comprised of research which uses scientific methods (f. MRI brain scans for example) to measure behaviour… • What type of relationship can be established in the research studies? Cause and effect relationship – direct link between the IV and the DV • What is the likelihood of: (a) Demand characteristics – No demand characteristics from participants as these factors are out with participants control (b) Social desirable responses - No social desirable responses as these factors are out with participants control (c) Researcher bias - the researcher may be bias in the analysis of brain scans, for example, however this is very unlikely (d) Objectivity – Yes it will be very objective as there is no bias which could occur • Does this make the results (a) valid – yes, very valid due to high levels of control (b) reliable – yes, very reliable as often the procedure is standardised so can be repeated
Weaknesses of the biological area The area suggests that biology is responsible for all behaviours. What does this explanation ignore?
Weaknesses of the biological area The area suggests that biology is responsible for all behaviours. What does this explanation ignore? • Social factors, the environment, cognitive factors, free will etc
Core studies There are four core studies which fall under the biological area. We have already looked at two so far. List them below. • 1. • 2. We will now be looking at two new studies: 1. Blakemore & Cooper (1970) Impact of early visual experience 2. Maguire et al. (2000) Taxi drivers
Blakemore & Cooper (1970) ‘Impact of early visual experience’ Area: Biological Area Theme: Brain plasticity
The brain Consider the following questions: • Are all brains the same? • Will your brain remain the same throughout your life? Or can it change? • In what circumstances might the brain change? The brain has plasticity • This means the brain is not plastic – it is the opposite. • The brain can change and adapt over time due to experience
Blakemore & Cooper (1970) Wanted to investigate brain plasticity. Specifically, the influence of early visual experience on brain plasticity. Why early visual experience? At birth, our auditory (hearing), olfaction (smell), and tactile (touch) systems are already developed at the time of birth. The visual system is somewhat organised but still relatively immature and continues to develop over the first few weeks and months. In many ways, vision is the most important sense as it provides us with the most detailed information about what is happening in our environment.
Previous researchers have been interested to see the long-term effect deprivation has and whether this long-term effect can be reversed Case study of Genie suffered severe deprivation throughout her whole childhood. Under new care and years of hard work, Genie was able to learn how to walk and talk. Academically, Genie could only understand to a certain level. Whilst the effects of deprivation are not irreversible – the effects can limit the progress one can make. Genie never led a ‘normal’ or ‘functioning’ life. She was placed into state care at a young age and at 67 years old, she is still there. She is a real life case which shows the impact of deprivation
Blakemore & Cooper (1970) Background: • Blakemore & Cooper were interested in the effects of deprivation to visual experience in early life and brain plasticity • They wanted to investigate this and questioned ‘Does brain plasticity/development occur due to experience (nurture) or nature? ’ Aim: • Blakemore & Cooper aimed to investigate this. They looked at what the physiological and behaviour effects are following limited visual experience
Where was the study conducted? Methodology Controlled artificial environment. • What method is this? No information on where in the world the study was conducted Why is this a weakness of the study? Who were the participants? New born kittens. What is wrong with the use of kittens as participants… Ethically In terms of the study being representative and being able to generalise findings • No further details on sample Unknown number of kittens – what does this mean in terms of being able to generalise? • No details on sampling method Would this matter anyways?
Methodology Procedure At birth, each kitten was immediately placed into a dark room. At two weeks of age, the kittens were randomly placed into one of two conditions for five hours a day: A horizontal environment or a vertical environment Is this the IV or DV? What type of design is this? Why were the kittens placed in a dark room at birth? What does this eliminate? The kittens had to stand on a clear glass platform which was inside a tall cylinder of which the inner surface was covered with either horizontal or vertical, black-and-white stripes They were required to wear a wide black collar. This prevented them from seeing their own body and ‘beyond their world of stripes’.
Methodology After five months the Dependent Variable (DV) was then measured: this was whether kittens raised in a horizontal environment could detect vertically aligned objects. And if kittens raised in a vertical environment could detect horizontally aligned objects You will see what the kittens visual field will perceive based on the condition
Results: All the kittens were extremely visually impaired • no visual placing when brought up to a table • no startle response when an object was thrust towards them • All kittens showed behaviour blindness, meaning that they could not detect objects or contours that were aligned in the opposite way to their previous environment • Deficiency from their early deprivation
What happened to the kittens after? • After five months, exposure to the experimental conditions ended and the kittens were then placed for several hours a week from their dark cage to a small, welllit furnished room • 10 hours the kittens showed visual placing and some startled responses • Permanent damage = clumsy and trying to touch things beyond reach
What happened to the kittens after? • After 7 and a half months, two of the kittens, one from each environment were anaesthetised and their neurophysiology was examined Found: no evidence of astigmatism (blurred vision). There was, however, evidence of ‘physical blindness’ (Explaining inability to perform orientation selectivity) – suggesting support for brain plasticity
Blakemore & Cooper (1970) Watch the video below for consolidation • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Qzk. Mo 45 pc. Uo
Conclusions • Brain development is clearly affected by early experiences and environmental factors rather than just genetics • There is clear evidence of brain plasticity – ‘the visual experience of these animals had modified their brain’ and therefore has serious perceptual consequences.
Evaluation Research method Where was the study conducted? • Strengths: (a) What level of control is there in this environment? (b) What type of relationship does this allow for? (c) What can we assume about the IV and the DV? • Weaknesses: (a) As this type of environment is false, what can we assume about any behaviour which is measured within it? (b) Is the task itself something that would occur in real life regularly? Observation to gather data • What are the incidences of (a) Researcher effects and (b) researcher bias occurring • Is the data collected based on facts or assumptions? Independent measures design was used • What are the strengths of this? • What are the weaknesses of this?
Evaluation Type of data Qualitative (based on observations) (a) What does the data gathered tell us? (b) What does it allow us to do? (c) what are the limitations of this type of data? Ethical consideration • List all 6 ethical guidelines • Identify which were upheld and which were broken • Consider, is this more ethical than if a similar study was conducted with humans? How might a quasi-experiment be conducted on this topic?
Evaluation Validity • Internal validity – the aim of Blakemore & Coopers study was to see the long-term effect of deprivation on brain plasticity. Does the study really do this? Or are there other factors which may influence? Reliability • Internal reliability – is the study highly controlled and standardised? If yes, the study has high IR. If not, then it does not. Sampling bias • Use of kittens – Who is this representative of? Who can this be generalised to? • Number unknown
Evaluation Practical applications • Who in the world would benefit from knowing that early visual experiences does have an influence on brain plasticity? Ethnocentrism • It is unknown where in the world this study was conducted, is there cultural bias? Can cultural bias be an issue when it comes to cats?
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