elanor maguire

• studied the brains of london taxi drivers
• used MRI
• found significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than in the matched control group
• the posterior hippocampus is the part of the brain that is associated with the development of spacial and navigation skills in humans and animals
• the longer they (the taxi drivers) had been doing their job, the more pronounced the structural difference was - positive correlation
• pros:

  Control group allows us to say there is a significant difference (research design), use of scientific objective measurements (MRI), and an attempt to study a real-world phenomenon.

  Cons:

  We can't be sure the difference is due to knowledge - they weren't tested before, only on an already existing difference.