Unit 2; Core Studies; Maguire et al

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  • Maguire et al
    • Aim: investigate differences in the brains (especially the hippocampus) of London taxi drivers
    • Sample: 16 male, right-handed Ldn taxi drivers aged 32-62, & 50 matched controls
    • IV:  taxi driver or not DV: hippocampus size
    • Background: hippocampus helps navigation
    • Results
      • Correlational analysis: longer been a driver for, the bigger your posterior H-C & the smaller your anterior H-C
      • VBM: taxi drivers had larger grey matter volume & more at back, less at front
      • Pixel counting: no difference in overall size but  drivers had larger posterior, non-drivers were more even
    • Procedure
      • MRI of taxi drivers to analyse brain anatomy then compared to controls
      • Voxel based Morphometry
        • measures grey matter volume & general differences
      • Pixel Counting
        • done on drivers & 16 matched controls.
        • scan separates H-C into 26 slices & a blind researcher counts pixels: 2D area measurement
    • Conclusion: H-C changes with demand on spatial memory
      • posterior may control old info & anterior controls new
    • Ethics: all kept
    • Reliability & Validity
      • IR: consistent results from 3 sources
      • ER: can't generalise to women & children
      • IV: accurate test of plasticity
      • EV: uses real drivers
    • Ethnocentrism: only used LDN drivers but applicable everywhere
    • Summary
      • Biological area: studied how brain shape changes with use
      • Brain Plasticity: navigational skill use affects size of hippocampus
    • Debates
      • Nature vs Nurture: enviro changes shape of H-C

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