Recap – Cognitive Psychology

1. What’s the capacity of sensory memory?

2. How does the case study of HM provide evidence to criticise the multi-store
model?
3. Which part of the cortex was being examined in the Schmolck (2002) study?
4. What was difference between serial reproduction and repeated reproduction
in the Bartlett (1932) study
5. Which part of working memory model stores the arrangement of objects in
the visual field?
• Zing and Zang, along with a number of other people, both witnessed
a car crash but a week later Zing thinks the cars were red and Zang
thinks the cars were blue

1. Using theories and/or studies from cognitive psychology, explain

why this difference in memory may have happened
2. According to the Multi-Store model, what would have been the best
way for Zing and Zang to have remembered the incident accurately?
3. According to Working Memory Model, if someone was talking to
Zing straight after the car crash about where the cars were when
they crashed, why might it have been difficult for her to keep the
colour of the cars in her short-term memory?
 Recap – Biological Psychology
1. Name four things which Biological Psychologists assume influence our
behaviour
2. What two parts of the body make up the CNS?
3. What’s the name for a brain cell?
4. What’s the name for the gap between two brain cells?
5. What’s the name for the electrical impulse that runs along a brain cell if it
is activated?
6. What’s the difference between a agonist and an antagonist?
7. Name a neurotransmitter
8. What are the four brain structures which make up the limbic system?
1 Axon Terminal

2or
Terminal Button

3
 Somatosensory cortex
Primary Motor Cortex
Parietal Taste
2
Lobe
Temperature
Touch
Decision-making Frontal
Impulse control 1
Lobe Occipital
3
Lobe
Vision

Temporal
4 Speech Brain Stem
Sound
lobe
 Limbic System – match-up
1. Generates the release of hormones
such as adrenaline, preparing us for
aggression Hypothalamus
2. Relays information from the senses Amygdala
(sight, sound, etc) to the relevant Thalamus
parts of the cortex
Hippocampus
3. Long-term memory formation
4. Anger, fear and anxiety/stress centre
Split Brain
Objectives
• To be able to describe the Raine et al (1997) study in terms of: Aim,
Procedure, Results, Conclusions
• To be able to evaluate the Raine et al (1997) study in terms of GRAVE
Prefrontal
Cortex

Amygdala
(pronounced
Ahh-Mig-Dala)
 RAINE et al (1997) Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by PET Ad d
th
at th is headin
e top g

12 box es
she et i n t o
e your
Divid
Draw pictures to represent each of these stages of the experiment
23 had a history of brain
Experimental group of 41 damage, 3 with a history of There was also a control
The murderers were 39
participants convicted of drug abuse, 6 suffered group of 41 ‘normal’ people
men and 2 women (mean
murder/manslaughter who from schizophrenia, 2 with who were matched for sex
age 34.3)
had pleaded ‘not guilty by epilepsy and 7 with other and age other ways e.g. 6
reasons of insanity’ emotional or learning had schizophrenia
disorders

Raine made sure none of

the participants (NGRIs or
The Independent variable The Dependent variable is
Controls) was on Participants were injected
is whether a participant is a the level of brain activity
medication; the NGRIs had with a radioactive glucose
murderer or not and brain structure found
been kept medication-free tracer
using PET scans
for 2 weeks before the PET
scan.

Murderers, had an
They then did a
Murderers had lower Murderers had less activity imbalance of activity
‘continuous performance
glucose metabolism (i.e. in corpus callosum between the left and right
task’ for 32 minutes and
less activity) in the pre- (structure that joins the two hemispheres in the limbic
their brain function was
frontal cortex halves of the brain) system: eg, less activity on
measured using a PET
the left and more on the
scan
right in the amygdala.
 The results could be used to help identify people at risk of commit
violent crimes so that they can be helped to control their aggression

Match the Raine used opportunity sampling for

points to: both the murderers and the controls

G The participants’ brains were scanned whilst carrying out

a Continuous Performance Task (CPT) which had nothing to do

R with violence or the decision to be violent

Raine made sure none of the participants (NGRIs or

A Controls) was on medication; the NGRIs had been kept
medication-free for 2 weeks before the PET scan.
V – Internal
The murderers may have felt pressured to take part in the study as
V – External part of their process of pleading not guilty for reason of insanity

E The participants’ all had exactly 32 minutes in the PET brain

scanner carrying out the same Continuous Performance Task
•Generalisability: Raine used opportunity sampling for both the murderers and the controls

•Replicability: The participants’ all had exactly 32 minutes in the PET brain scanner carrying out the
same Continuous Performance Task

•Applications: The results could be used to help identify people at risk of commit violent crimes so that
they can be helped to control their aggression

•Validity – Internal: Raine made sure none of the participants (NGRIs or Controls) was on medication;
the NGRIs had been kept medication-free for 2 weeks before the PET scan

•Validity – External: The participants’ brains were scanned whilst carrying out a Continuous
Performance Task (CPT) which had nothing to do with violence or the decision to be violent

•Ethics: The murderers may have felt pressured to take part in the study as part of their process of
pleading not guilty for reason of insanity
1. Discuss
2. Write (on your own)
3. Swap
4. Discuss whose is better
and why
 Limbic System – match-up
1. Generates the release of hormones
such as adrenaline, preparing us for
aggression Hypothalamus
2. Relays information from the senses Amygdala
(sight, sound, etc) to the relevant Thalamus
parts of the cortex
Hippocampus
3. Long-term memory formation
4. Anger, fear and anxiety/stress centre
1 Axon Terminal

2or
Terminal Button

3
 Somatosensory cortex
Primary Motor Cortex
Parietal Taste
2
Lobe
Temperature
Touch
Decision-making Frontal
Impulse control 1
Lobe Occipital
3
Lobe
Vision

Temporal
4 Speech Brain Stem
Sound
lobe