Core Studies: Biological Area | OCR A-Level Psychology (H567)

Core Studies: Biological Area

137 questions
13 subtopics
Component 02: Psychological themes through core studies
Component 02

Core Studies: Biological Area is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies.

137 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Sample questions from Core Studies: Biological Area

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Sperry (1968) split-brain study: background, apparatus and procedure

How many patients formed the sample?

Show the answer
Eleven patients who had already undergone hemisphere deconnection surgery.
Sperry (1968) split-brain study: results, conclusions and evaluation

Evaluate the ecological validity of the tasks.

Show the answer
Flashing an image for a tenth of a second to one visual field is nothing like ordinary vision, and in everyday life the patients behaved almost normally by moving their eyes and heads.
Casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: the go/no-go task and results

What made the hot version of the task hot?

Show the answer
It used happy and fearful facial expressions, with the happy face acting as a socially rewarding and therefore tempting cue.
Casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: conclusions and evaluation

Why can the brain differences not be said to cause poor self-control?

Show the answer
The groups were not randomly allocated and the imaging data are correlational, so the difference in activity could be a consequence of low self-control or could share a third cause with it.
Blakemore and Cooper (1970) early visual experience: background and method

Which method and design were used?

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It was a laboratory experiment on animals using an independent measures design, with kittens raised in either a vertical or a horizontal environment, combined with controlled observation of their behaviour.
Blakemore and Cooper (1970) early visual experience: procedure and results

How was the activity of single neurons recorded?

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Under anaesthesia a microelectrode was inserted into the primary visual cortex and the firing of individual cells was recorded while a bright bar of light was moved across the visual field at different angles.
Maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: background, method and sample

Which brain structure was the focus, and why?

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The hippocampus, because animal research had already linked it to spatial memory and shown that it is larger in species with heavy navigational demands.
Maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: MRI analysis and results

What was found in the anterior hippocampi?

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The controls had significantly more grey matter there than the taxi drivers.

The 13 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Sperry (1968) split-brain study: background, apparatus and procedure	Recall questions on the corpus callosum surgery of Sperry's 1968 split-brain patients, the aim, method and sample, the visual apparatus and brief presentations, visual field pathways, and responses to words and objects presented to each hemisphere.	12
Sperry (1968) split-brain study: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Sperry's findings from drawing, emotional reactions, right-hemisphere language and left-hand tasks, his conclusions about consciousness and hemisphere function, and the evaluation of procedure, generalisation, sample, ecological validity, comparisons, reductionism and practical value.	14
Casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: background and sample	Recall questions on the background and aim of Casey et al.'s 2011 study of the neural correlates of delay of gratification, hot and cool systems, the combined methods, the original cohort, high and low delayers, and the participants.	8
Casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: the go/no-go task and results	Recall questions on the go/no-go task used by Casey et al., its cool and hot versions and target reversal, the behavioural findings, and the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum findings for low and high delayers.	9
Casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Casey et al.'s conclusions about the stability of self-control and when low delayers fail, and the evaluation of the longitudinal element, fMRI, sample, ecological validity, causation and applications.	8
Regions of the brain: comparing Sperry and Casey et al.	Recall questions on the similarities between Sperry and Casey et al. in aims, pre-existing groups, data, samples, validity and debates, their differences in brains studied, methods, time frame, regions, health and ethics, and what the pair adds on localisation, technology and diversity.	18
Blakemore and Cooper (1970) early visual experience: background and method	Recall questions on the aim of Blakemore and Cooper's 1970 study of early visual experience, the earlier finding behind it, the method and design, how the kittens were housed, the vertical and horizontal striped cylinders, and the collar.	8
Blakemore and Cooper (1970) early visual experience: procedure and results	Recall questions on the conditions in Blakemore and Cooper's study, the kittens' introduction to a lit room, behavioural deficits and recovery, behavioural blindness, single-neuron recording and the central neurophysiological finding.	8
Blakemore and Cooper (1970) early visual experience: conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Blakemore and Cooper's main conclusion, sensitive periods, explanations for the missing cells, and the evaluation of internal validity, combined measures, ethics, generalising to humans, applications and the behavioural observations.	9
Maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: background, method and sample	Recall questions on the Knowledge and why London taxi drivers were studied, the hippocampus, the aim, method and design of Maguire et al.'s 2000 study, the taxi driver and control samples, and why all were right-handed men.	8
Maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: MRI analysis and results	Recall questions on how Maguire et al. examined the brains using MRI, voxel-based morphometry and pixel counting, blinding, and the findings for posterior and anterior hippocampi, total volume and years of taxi driving experience.	9
Maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on whether Maguire et al. found other brain differences, their conclusion and the role of the posterior hippocampus, and the evaluation of two analysis techniques, causation, sample, design improvements and reductionism.	8
Brain plasticity: comparing Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire et al.	Recall questions on the similarities between Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire et al. in plasticity, measurement, samples, nature and nurture, reductionism and practical value, their differences in participants, causation, life stage, ethics and data, and what the pair adds on plasticity and diversity.	18

Core Studies: Biological Area is 137 of the 3,537 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.