BIOLOGICAL-Blakemore and Cooper Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is the background to blakemoore and cooper’s study?
Hirsch and Spinelli investigated the visual cortex of the brain in kittens. Goggles with visual and horizontal stripes were placed on the kittens, causing their visual neurons to adapt to the environment.
What does the visual cortex mean?
A part of our brain which receives and processes visual information from the retinas
What is the startle response?
The automatic reaction to sudden or threatening stimuli in a cat
What is visual placing?
The tendency of kittens to reach and place their paws in front of them when carried toward a surface.
What did Blakemoore and Cooper aim?
To investigate the effect being raised in a restricted environment has on behaviour and neurological effects
What is the sample like?
There were two kittens from birth to one year old
Describe the procedure for the study?
During the first two weeks
the kittens were stuck in a completely dark room
from two weeks to five months
They were placed in a cylinder ontop of a glass platform. The cylinder had vertical lines for one kitten, and horizontal for the other. A lid was placed ontop, with a light coming in from the bottom. They spent 5 hours a day in there with a collar.
after five months
They were taken to a well furnished room for several hours a day.
What was the independent variable for the study?
The vertical environment and the horizontal environment
What was the experimental design?
Independent group design
What were the results?
Both of the kittens showed no startle response when a hand was thrust toward them.
Both of the kittens did not show any form of visual placing when put towards a ledge.
But after about 10 hours, the issues resolved.
Their visual tracking was clumsy with jerky head movements. They often bumped into things.
How did the vertical and horizontal raised cats differ?
When a perplex sheet was held to the cats with the same line orientation as their cylinder, they showed a fear response.
When a rod was shaken in the same orientation as the cylinder, they would reach out, but when in the opposite orientation they do nothing
What was the neurophysiological test?
The two cats were anaesthetised. Electrodes were inserted into their visual cortex to take readings. Recordings were taken from 125 in total. 52 horizontal and 72 vertical cat.
What were the results of the neurophysiological test?
The visual cortex of the vertically raised kitten had no neurons that responded to horizontal orientation
Similarly, the visual cortex of the horizontally raised kitten had no neurons which responded optimally to vertical lines
What did they conclude?
The visual environment had changed the kittens brains. The neurons rewired themslves to adapt to the environment they were raised in
How does the study relate to ethics?
Replacement
They were the best fit animal as they have the most similar eye structure, so a different animal that suffers less cant be chosen
Reduction
Sample of 2 kittens, so only used as many as necessary
Refinement
They were isolated for 5 hours a day and kept in a dark room.
How does the study relate to ethnocentrism?
It isnt relevent to ethnocentrism as cats are not similar to humans
How does the study relate to reliability?
Very controlled. Same cylinder with the same measurements. Easily repeated.
There were only two kittens, so results could be down to a fluke. Larger sample needed to ensure consistency.
How does the study relate to validity?
High construct validity
High level of control, so researchers were confident that the findings were due to the environment
Population Validity
Two cats, so doesn’t relate to humans
Low ecological validity
Kittens aren’t normally trapped for five hours a day in a cylinder
Contains concurrent validity
Behavioural and neurophysiological findings. The vertical cat did not respond to horizontal rods, and the neurons did not fire either. And vice versa.
