Blakeomoore and cooper

• Outline the background of Blakemore and Cooper’s study. (4)

  1)Define functional brain plasticity2)Explain how cats can adapt to their environment-cats brain3)Hirsch + Spinelli - monocular4)Blackmore and Cooper - expand by doing binocularBlakemore and Cooper were inspired by the process of brain plasticity, which is when the grey matter of the brain changes both structurally and functionally, functionally in terms of strengthening or weakening of neural pathways.They were particularly interested in the brains of kittens, as there was evidence that their brains adapt to the environment that they are in, as their grey matter has a similar structure to that of humans.Inspired by Hirsch and Spinelli who showed that early visual experiences can change the orientation of the visual cortex of kittens and testing this using a monocular method,Blakemore and Cooper wanted to expand on this by doing a binocular study in which the kittens experienced wither a horizontal or vertical environment with both eyes.
• What is grey matter?

  Grey matter is the pinkish part of the brain which creates the main volume of the brain
• What is brain plasticity?

  Brain plasticity is the process in which 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 the critical period?

  The critical period of life is the start of a human or animals life in which their brain is most vulnerable to plasticity
• What is behavioural blindness?

  Behavioural blindness is the changes in the behaviour of the kittens indicating they were blind to certain aspects of their environment
• What is psychical blindness?

  Physical/Physiological blindness is the physical and biological changes that occur when the neurons in the visual cortex are no longer functioning properly.
• what is the Hippocampus (anterior and posterior)?

  The hippocampus is located within the limbic system and is involved in behaviours such as navigation.

  The anterior part is at the front of the hippocampus and is in charge of newly visited locations and navigation.

  The posterior is at the back and is in charge of frequently visited locations and navigation.
• What is the aim in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?

  To investigate the development of the primary visual cortex(in cats) and to find out if some of its properties such asorientation selectivity 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
• What is the sample in Blakemore's and Cooper's study? (2)

  -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? (6)

  1. Kittens were kept in a completely dark room from birth.

  2.At two weeks, they were placed in a specialist cylinder for five hours per day

  3. The kittens were a black colour which meant that they could not see their own bodies.

  4. After five months, the critical period was over and experiments stopped

  5.Kittens were taken to a well lit room, for several hours and their physical and behavioural blindness was measured

  6. 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? (4)

  •Visual findings (what the experimenters could see from the kittens)1)‘Behavioural blindness’was shown which means thatkittens raised in the horizontal environment could not detect vertically aligned objects and vice versa. So both sets of kittensremained blindto contours perpendicular(opposite)to thestripesthey had lived with.2)This was evident as only the eyes of thekitten brought up in vertical stripesfollowed andplayed with a rod if it was held and shaken verticallyand only the eyes of the kitten brought up in the horizontal stripes followed the rod if held horizontally.So quite simply thehorizontally raised kittens did not see vertical linesand thevertically raised kittens failed to see horizontal lines.

  Physiological findings (the neurological changes)1)Physical blindnessoccurred which was evident when certain cells were not firing (electrical messages being sent across the synapse) The kittens raised in thevertical environmenthadproblems with their horizontal plane recognition cells firingand the kitten raised in the horizontal plane environment had problem with their vertical plane recognition cells firing2)The kitten raised in thehorizontal environment had no neurons in the vertical orientationand in thevertical raised kitten there were no neurons in the horizontal orientation(physical evidence for the behavioural blindness)
• In a normal cat how is the pattern of visual neurons?

  In anormal catthe pattern ofvisual neurons would be balanced, so they would have abalance of horizontal and vertical neurons.
• What are the conclusions in Blakemore's and Cooper's study? (4)

  •Visual experiences in the early life of kittens can modify their brains and have important perceptual consequences.

  •A kitten’s visual cortex may adjust itself during maturation to the nature of its visual experience.

  •Brain development is determined by the functional demands made upon it, rather than pre-programmed genetic factors.

  •The environment can determine perception at both a behavioural and physiological level – at least in cats
• What is a strength of the research method in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?

  •Highly controlled lab conditions, manipulating and controlling theindependent variableof the visual environment in which each of the kittens were raised and as a result were able to conclude that it was the type of environment in which kittens were raisedthat causedthe kittens observed blindness.High internal validity
• What is a weakness of the research method in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?

  there is a lack of application to the real world due to the highly artificial environment, and to human development in the visual cortex.Low ecological validity.
• What are strengths of the type of data collected in Blakemore's and Cooper's study? (2)

  Quantitative in terms of the neurobiological findings: Of 125 neurons studies in two cats, all but one was shown to favour the restricted orientation in which the cats were raised. Or 75% of cells were binocular

  + Such quantitative data providesscientific objective evidenceof brain plasticity in the kittens. Collecting quantitative data also enables research to be repeated and tested for be reliability

  •Qualitative as the authors describe the kittens reactions such as following/not following the rod shaken in front of them, or no startle response etc.

  + This providesdetailed descriptive examplesof the differences observed in the kittens raised in two different environments . More useful due to the insight
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study ethical?

  The kittens were treated with therespect and responsibilitylaid out by the BPS for animal research
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study unethical? (2)

  the cats demonstrated some long lasting clumsiness as a result of the experiment-physical harm

  Also, the environment they were reared in may have been emotionally distressing for the cats-psychological harm
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study high in validity? (2)

  •Highinternal validityas high levels of control so researchers can be confident that the findings were caused by the restricted visual environment

  •Concurrent validity: Research measured both behavioural and physical behaviours of kittens raised in a restricted environment andboth measures concurred with one anotheras both behavioural and physical blindness was shown) which means both measures are concurrently valid as they 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 validityas the sample of 2 kittens is not applicable to how other kittens might respond, nor is it representative of how the human brain may plasticise.
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study high in reliability? (2)

  • the highly standardised procedures does allow for replication.High internal reliability•However, the quantitative data allows for consistency to be checked, sohigh external reliability to some extent
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study low in reliability?

  The study does not explicitly state the sample size, just the two conditions where one kitten participated in each. Ideally we would like 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, allowing for some representation of brain plasticity in humans.
• What is a weakness of the sample in Blakemore's and Cooper's study?

  •The evidence presented came from the brains of just two cats so it could lack generalisability to other animals. Therefore we would have to be cautious about making claims about the environment 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?

  •The study shows both nature and nurture, therefore, is highlyinteractionist, which is incredibly 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 and 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?

  The restricted and manipulated environment in which the kittens were raised 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?

  Extremely usefulin helping us to understand functional brain plasticity and the impact the environment has on brain development. This could one day potentially 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 learnfrom animals about the plasticity of the human brain? Especially because of the limited sample, what can we really learn about plasticity in other animals if anything? Also, the environment they were raised in is so unrealistic and cannot be applied to other particular environments of animals or humans
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study scientific? (3)

  Scientific equipment(electrode) measures neurophysiology= High objective

  High controls-the ability to establish cause and effect between a specific change in the environment and whether that impacts upon behavioural and physical blindness

  Highly standardised= Procedure can be easily replicated
• How is Blakemore's and Cooper's study unscientific?

  the qualitative data collected in the lab when measuring behavioural blindness may have been misinterpreted so may have been subjective