Blakemore and Cooper

• background

  • Hubel and wiesel - used single celled recording to measure the electrical activity in individual neurones in a kittens visual cortex
  • Hirsch and spinelli - effect of neurones of the visual cortex of cats when their early visual experience is controlled, kittens were raised wearing a mask and one eye saw either horizontal or vertical stripes, kittens become monocular (only see in one eye)
• aim - investigate the neuronal effects controlling the visual environment of the kittens
• sample

  • 2 lab raised cats
  • complete darkness for 2 weeks
• method

  • lab
  • independent measures design
  • longitudinal
• procedure

  1. kittens spent 5 hours a day for 5 months inside a cylinder either containing horizontal or vertical stripes, kittens wore a black collar meaning they couldn't see themselves
  2. at 7.5 months the kittens underwent neurobiological tests, the cat was anaesthetised and single celled recordings were made
• results

  • behavioural - temporary: failed visual placing and failed to show startle responses, permanent: bumped into stationary objects and startle responses failed
  • neurobiological - the horizontally reared cats neurones only responded to horizontal lines
• conclusions

  • the difference between the differently reared cats suggest that neurones change their prefered orientation according to the stimuli they received, suggesting unused parts of the brain didn't degenerate but they adapted to match the visual stimuli
• strengths

  • lab experiment
  • qualitative and quantitative data gathered
  • ethical
• weaknesses

  • low population validity
  • low ecological validity
  • qualitative data
• related to key theme brain plasticity

  • temporary results such as depth perception inabilities were overcome within 10 hours, showing the brains of the kittens are plastic
• relate to biological are

  assumption - behaviour should be measured scientifically

  • uses single celled recordings to measure the neurone activity