Maguire (2000)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To see whether the brains of London taxi drivers would be different to non-taxi drivers as a result of the many hours spent behind the wheel navigating the streets of London.

Question 2

Participants

Answer 2

16 right-handed male London taxi drivers and 50 right-handed males who did not drive taxis.

Question 3

Method

Answer 3

An MRI was taken of each participant. The density of grey matter in the brain was measured by voxel-based morphology and pixel counting, to calculate the area of the hippocampus.

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

Pixel counting revealed that the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects and the anterior hippocampi were significantly smaller.
VBM showed that the volume of the right posterior hippocampi correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver.

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

Demonstrates that the hippocampus may change in response to environmental demands.
The posterior hippocampi is often involved when previously learned spatial information is utilised, however the anterior hippocampi may be involved in encoding new environmental layouts.

Question 6

Evaluation

Answer 6

• Quasi-experiment, no cause and effect relationship
• Researchers were unable to manipulate the independent variable; it was naturally occurring
• Brain scans were coded so that analysis could be done blindly; avoid researcher bias.
• Some might argue that those with larger hippocampi might be more spatially talented and thus chose to be taxi drivers; however, this is disproven by the correlation between the size of the hippocampus and the number of years driving
• Cannot argue that the MRI has low ecological validity because the participants were not asked to do anything while in the scanner
• Appears to have sampling bias, but it is a reality that the vast majority of London cabbies are male. Still difficult to generalise findings
• Ethically sound