IB Psychology Bio ATB Studies Study Guide with complete
solution
Scoville and Milner (1957)
The original case study of HM, who had experienced many seizures so had surgery on
his hippocampus. The seizures got a little better but he then had essentially no memory.
After in-depth studies, they were able to attribute the hippocampus to memory
formation. After performing the star mirror test, they were also able to establish different
categories of memory (implicit and explicit).
Corkin et al. (1997)
H.M. suffered from amnesia b/c most of his hippocampus and some surrounding areas
(viewed later with an MRI) had been removed during an operation, with the intention to
end his epilepsy. He was unable to form new explicit memories. An MRI showed that
specific memory processes are dependent on the hippocampus and those adjacent
cortical structures. The MRI scan confirmed a relationship between damage to the
medial temporal lobes (inc. the hippocampus) and his amnesia. Although a tiny part of
the hippocampus remained it was not enough to support normal memory function.
Maguire et al. (2000)
Aim: To investigate whether or not the hippocampus plays a role in human spatial
memory
Procedure: London taxi drivers with a range of age and experience were the
participants because their work requires the extensive use of spatial navigational skills,
matched pairs design: participants were age and gender matched with a control group,
and two different types of MRI scanning were used to assess how the brains of the taxi
drivers differed from the control group. It was a quasi-experiment
Results: showed significantly more grey matter in both left and right hippocampi of the
taxi drivers compared to the control group
Evaluation:
•No researcher bias
•No ethical implications
•Only observed males
•Only observed 16 matched pairs
•Nature vs. Nurture debate: did the driving influence the change in the hippocampus, or
did their larger than average hippocampus lead them to become taxi drivers?
Rogers and Kesner (2003)
Aim: establish role of acetylcholine in formation of spatial memory and retrieval
Experiment:
2 conditions were tested
-Scopolamine (acetylcholine antagonist)
-Saline solution (placebo)
30 rats run Hebb Williams maze and were observed to see how long it would take them
to learn the maze
, Encoding of maze was assessed by average number of errors made on first five trials
on day one compared to the last day
Retrieval assessed by average number of errors in first five trials on day two
Results:
Scopolamine group took longer to learn maze and made more mistakes, seemed to
have no effect on retrieval
More acetylcholine hurts retrieval
-physostigmine causes disruption of retrieval by disrupting consolidation process
-scopolamine disrupts encoding
Shows that acetylcholine effects spatial memory by aiding with learning
Fisher et al (2005)
Aim: To study role of dopamine in romantic love
Hypotheses:
-Romantic love involves dopamine pathways
-Romantic love is a goal directed behavior and not a single emotion
Experiment:
17 participants (10 female, 7 male)
Studied courtship attraction in early stages of relationships
Would look at photo of either beloved or neutral acquaintance before given a distraction
task.
Used fMRI to analyze brain activity
Results:
Activation in Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)
-central part of rewards system (arousal, pleasure, motivation, etc.)
-makes dopamine
VTA sends projections to various brain regions including caudate nucleus
-primitive structure that was activated when saw picture of beloved
-Role in reward detection, expectation, goals, motivation
Romantic love may be primary motivation system-mating drive
Rosenzweig et al (1972)
Aim: see role of environmental/situational factors and stimulation on brain's structure
Experiment:
3 conditions
-Standard- several rats, food, water
-enriched- 6-8 rats, toys, food, water
-impoverished- isolated rat, food, water
After 4 weeks in conditions, rats were euthanized to study brain structure
Results:
-Rats in enriched condition had heavier and thicker cortex and bigger neurons
solution
Scoville and Milner (1957)
The original case study of HM, who had experienced many seizures so had surgery on
his hippocampus. The seizures got a little better but he then had essentially no memory.
After in-depth studies, they were able to attribute the hippocampus to memory
formation. After performing the star mirror test, they were also able to establish different
categories of memory (implicit and explicit).
Corkin et al. (1997)
H.M. suffered from amnesia b/c most of his hippocampus and some surrounding areas
(viewed later with an MRI) had been removed during an operation, with the intention to
end his epilepsy. He was unable to form new explicit memories. An MRI showed that
specific memory processes are dependent on the hippocampus and those adjacent
cortical structures. The MRI scan confirmed a relationship between damage to the
medial temporal lobes (inc. the hippocampus) and his amnesia. Although a tiny part of
the hippocampus remained it was not enough to support normal memory function.
Maguire et al. (2000)
Aim: To investigate whether or not the hippocampus plays a role in human spatial
memory
Procedure: London taxi drivers with a range of age and experience were the
participants because their work requires the extensive use of spatial navigational skills,
matched pairs design: participants were age and gender matched with a control group,
and two different types of MRI scanning were used to assess how the brains of the taxi
drivers differed from the control group. It was a quasi-experiment
Results: showed significantly more grey matter in both left and right hippocampi of the
taxi drivers compared to the control group
Evaluation:
•No researcher bias
•No ethical implications
•Only observed males
•Only observed 16 matched pairs
•Nature vs. Nurture debate: did the driving influence the change in the hippocampus, or
did their larger than average hippocampus lead them to become taxi drivers?
Rogers and Kesner (2003)
Aim: establish role of acetylcholine in formation of spatial memory and retrieval
Experiment:
2 conditions were tested
-Scopolamine (acetylcholine antagonist)
-Saline solution (placebo)
30 rats run Hebb Williams maze and were observed to see how long it would take them
to learn the maze
, Encoding of maze was assessed by average number of errors made on first five trials
on day one compared to the last day
Retrieval assessed by average number of errors in first five trials on day two
Results:
Scopolamine group took longer to learn maze and made more mistakes, seemed to
have no effect on retrieval
More acetylcholine hurts retrieval
-physostigmine causes disruption of retrieval by disrupting consolidation process
-scopolamine disrupts encoding
Shows that acetylcholine effects spatial memory by aiding with learning
Fisher et al (2005)
Aim: To study role of dopamine in romantic love
Hypotheses:
-Romantic love involves dopamine pathways
-Romantic love is a goal directed behavior and not a single emotion
Experiment:
17 participants (10 female, 7 male)
Studied courtship attraction in early stages of relationships
Would look at photo of either beloved or neutral acquaintance before given a distraction
task.
Used fMRI to analyze brain activity
Results:
Activation in Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)
-central part of rewards system (arousal, pleasure, motivation, etc.)
-makes dopamine
VTA sends projections to various brain regions including caudate nucleus
-primitive structure that was activated when saw picture of beloved
-Role in reward detection, expectation, goals, motivation
Romantic love may be primary motivation system-mating drive
Rosenzweig et al (1972)
Aim: see role of environmental/situational factors and stimulation on brain's structure
Experiment:
3 conditions
-Standard- several rats, food, water
-enriched- 6-8 rats, toys, food, water
-impoverished- isolated rat, food, water
After 4 weeks in conditions, rats were euthanized to study brain structure
Results:
-Rats in enriched condition had heavier and thicker cortex and bigger neurons
