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level: Blakemore and Cooper (B)

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level questions: Blakemore and Cooper (B)

QuestionAnswer
What is brain plasticity?- Our brain changes based on the demands we put upon it - The brain can change functionally (Neural pathways strengthening/weakening) and structurally (Grey matter changing size and shape)
What is visual cortex?- Part of the cerebral cortex, receives and processes visual info.
What are neurons- Nerve cells which carry messages
What is grey matter?- Pinkish part of the brain, main volume of the brain
What is the critical period?- Start of a human or animals life in which their brain is most vulnerable to plasticity
What is behavioural blindness?- Changes in behaviour of the kittens indicating they were blind to certain aspects of their environment
What is physical blindness?- The physical and biological changes that occur when the neurons are no longer functioning properly
Visual tracking meaning- The ability to follow the path of a moving object - This is normally a smooth and accurate process using the eyes or head - Cats use this when they are chasing a toy
Depth perception meaning- The ability to judge the position of an object to establish how far away it is - This ability is very useful and helps us daily e.g. walking down stairs
Monocular vision meaning- Means ‘one eye’ and is when certain cells respond to information from only one of the two eyes
Binocular vision- Refers to both eyes and an action that uses both eyes, such as reading a book
What is the Hippocampus (anterior and posterior)?- In limbic system, controls navigation - Anterior, at front, controls newly visited locations + navigation - Posterior,at back, in charge of frequently visited locations + navigation
Aim- Biological + behavioural effects of restricted visual experiences - Dev. of visual cortex to find out if some of its properties are innate (as suggested by Hubel and Wiesel) or learned
What is the research method in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Laboratory experiment
What was the experimental design in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Independent measures design
What was the IV in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Horizontal or Vertical stripes
What was the DV in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Measuring visual and physical blindness
Background- Hubel + Weisel found that neurons in the visual cortex (in cats) respond to light and visual info. - So the brain of the cat is able to make sense of their surroundings
What is the sample in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- 2 Kittens (studied from birth until the completion of the research) - In the critical period of their lives, from 0-3 months
What is the procedure in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Kept in dark room from birth - At 2 weeks, placed in cylinder for 5 hours per day - After 5 months, critical period was over, experiments stopped - Taken to well lit room, physical + behavioural blindness was measured - At 7.5 months the kittens were put to sleep and had their neurological activity examined using an electrode
What are the results in Blakemore's and Cooper's study? Visual findings (what the experimenters could see from the kittens)- ‘Behavioural blindness’ shown - Horizontally raised kittens did not see vertical lines/objects VV
What are the results in Blakemore's and Cooper's study? Physiological findings (the neurological changes)- Physical blindness occurred - Certain cells were not firing - Vertical kittens had problems with their horizontal plane recognition cells firing + vice versa - Horizontal kittens had no neurons in the vertical orientation + vice versa
+In a normal cat how is the pattern of visual neurons?- In a normal cat the pattern of visual neurons would be balanced, so they would have a balance of horizontal and vertical neurons.
Materials- Kittens, vertical + horizontal condition, cylinders, lid
Controls- Size + shape of the visual apparatus, black collar, the time spent, the age
What are the conclusions in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Early visual experiences of kittens can change their brains - Their visual cortex may adjust itself during maturation to the nature of its visual experience - Brain dev determined by demands put upon it, than genetics - Environment can determine perception at both a behavioural and physiological level – at least in cats
Strengths and weaknesses of the research method- Strengths: High control, lab, generalizable to other kittens, can see cause and effect - Weaknesses: One breed of kittens tested, only 2 tested
Data collected- Quantitative, no. of neurons that responded in a particular orientation - 75% of cells were binocular - Qualitative, describing kittens reactions such as no startle response etc.
Strengths and weaknesses of the data collected- Strengths: Both types of data collected. scientific quantitative. qualitative data were from observations - Weaknesses: Not detailed quantitative data collected, not a lot of data for the length of time of the study
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study ethical?- The kittens were treated with the respect and responsibility laid out by the BPS for animal research
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study unethical?- Long lasting clumsiness - physical harm - Emotionally distressing- psychological harm
Ecological validity- Real kittens, generalisable, representative - Lab lots of control collars on them limiting 130 degrees vision, real life kitten wouldn't have these restrictions - Behaviour may be different in real life
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study high in validity?- High internal validity, controlled, confident that the findings were caused by the restricted visual environment - Concurrent validity, measured both behavioural + physical behaviours of kittens - Both measures concurred with one another as both behavioural and physical blindness was shown - Both support the claim that the development of kittens brains has been influenced by the environment
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study low in validity?- Low population validity, 2 kittens is not applicable to how other kittens might respond - Can't be applied to human brain plasticity
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study high in reliability?- Standardised, can be replicated, high internal reliability - Quantitative data allows for consistency to be checked, so high external reliability to some extent
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study low in reliability?- Doesn't state explicitly the sample size, just the 2 conditions - Ideal to see results of more kittens from each environment so we can be certain we didn’t get fluke results - Low external reliability
What is a strength of the sample in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- However, the brains of cats have similar structures to human brain - So some representation of brain plasticity in humans
What is a weakness of the sample in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?- Results from just 2 cats, lack generalisability to other animals - So hard to make claims about the envir. and how it impacts on brain development, especially in humans - Low population validity/ generalisability to humans
How does Blakemore's and Cooper's study illustrate the interactionist debate?- Shows both nature and nurture, therefore, is highly interactionist - Useful as it expands our understanding of how innate factors interact with learnt behaviour to form what we do
How does Blakemore's and Cooper's study illustrate the nature debate?- Nature provided the kitten with neurons with a preferred orientation - They were also born with a fully formed visual cortex so this was innate
How does Blakemore's and Cooper's study illustrate the nurture debate?- Restricted + manipulated envir. had a significant impact in terms of how the visual cortex developed - e.g. the opposite neurons to the environment were not firing, so the kittens visual neurons adapted to their environment- learnt
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study useful?- Helps us understand functional brain plasticity + impact of enviro. on brain dev. - Could lead us to develop practical applications on how best to train the brain to correct many behaviours
How does Blakemore's and Cooper's study lack usefulness?- But what can we really learn from animals about the plasticity of the human brain? - limited sample - or even animal brains? - Environment so unrealistic, cannot be applied to other particular environments of animals or humans
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study scientific?- Scientific equipment (electrode) measures neurophysiology, objective - Controls, establish cause + effect between a specific change in environ. + whether that impacts upon behavioural + physical blindness - Standardised, replicable
How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study unscientific?- Qualitative data in lab - When measuring behavioural blindness may have been misinterpreted so may have been subjective
Links to perspective and areas- Biological area, investigating effect of the enviro. on brain dev. of cats - Showed plasticity of the kittens brains as neurologically primed to prefer either horizontal or vertical orientation
How does Blakemore and Cooper link to the key theme- Brain plasticity - Brain dev. of cats brains of cats - Visual neurons will change their preferred orientation to the visual experience presented