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Core Studies: Biological Area

  • 13 subtopics
  • 39 things to know
  • Component 02

What Core Studies: Biological Area covers

Core Studies: Biological Area is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies. 137 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Component 02

Psychological themes through core studies, the synoptic paper.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Study

Why had Sperry's participants had their corpus callosum cut?

Key term

How could a patient show they had in fact processed a stimulus presented only to the right hemisphere?

Study

How did each study obtain its evidence about brain function?

Key term

What did the cylinder look like?

Process

Was total hippocampal volume different between the groups?

Study

Which study can claim cause and effect, and why?

Evaluation

Contrast the ethics of the two studies.

Study

What did Sperry conclude about consciousness in these patients?

Key term

Who made up the original cohort?

Study

What did the ventral striatum show?

Key term

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

Key term

Why did each kitten wear a wide black collar?

Evaluation

Why does the study have high internal validity?

Study

Who made up the control group?

Key term

Describe the second analysis technique.

Key term

Suggest one way the design could be improved to strengthen the causal claim.

Key term

How is the labour divided between the two hemispheres?

Key term

How does the hot system differ from the cool system?

Key term

What stimuli were used in the cool version of the task?

Key term

State the main conclusion about the stability of self-control.

Who and when

How did the two studies differ in the state of the brains they examined?

Key term

What was the only difference between the two conditions?

Key term

Which deficits improved and which persisted?

Key term

What does the study suggest about a sensitive period?

Key term

State the aim of Maguire et al.'s study.

Key term

Were differences found anywhere else in the brain?

Key term

State the aim of the study.

Evaluation

Give two strengths of the procedure.

Key term

Which methods were combined in this study?

Key term

What was found on the cool task?

Key term

Under what conditions do low delayers actually fail?

Key term

Give one difference in the time frame of the two studies.

Key term

What earlier finding made the question worth asking?

Key term

What is meant by saying the kittens showed a behavioural blindness?

Key term

Give two competing explanations for the missing cells.

Key term

Who made up the taxi driver sample?

Key term

How were the brains examined?

Key term

State the main conclusion of Maguire et al.'s study.

Key term

Who took part in each of the two studies?

Take Core Studies: Biological Area further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Sperry (1968) vs Casey et al. (2011)

    Sperry (1968): the study of patients whose corpus callosum had been cut, testing each hemisphere separately. Casey et al. (2011): the study following up adults who had done a delay-of-gratification task as children.

  • Blakemore and Cooper (1970) vs Maguire et al. (2000)

    Blakemore and Cooper (1970): the study rearing kittens in a cylinder painted with stripes of a single orientation. Maguire et al. (2000): the study comparing the hippocampi of London taxi drivers with those of controls.

  • Posterior hippocampus vs Anterior hippocampus

    Posterior hippocampus: the rear region found to be larger in experienced taxi drivers. Anterior hippocampus: the front region found to be smaller in experienced taxi drivers.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What surgical procedure had all of Sperry's participants undergone?

    Model answer

    They had all had a commissurotomy, in which the corpus callosum was cut so that the two cerebral hemispheres were separated.

  2. 2

    State the aim of the study.

    Model answer

    To investigate the psychological consequences of separating the hemispheres, and so establish what each hemisphere can do on its own.

  3. 3

    Which research method best describes the study?

    Model answer

    It was a quasi-experiment carried out under laboratory conditions, because the independent variable of having had the operation was naturally occurring rather than manipulated.

  4. 4

    How many patients formed the sample?

    Model answer

    Eleven patients who had already undergone hemisphere deconnection surgery.

  5. 5

    Describe the apparatus used for the visual tests.

    Model answer

    Participants sat in front of a screen with one eye covered, fixating a central point, while images were projected onto the screen; objects could be handled out of sight through a gap beneath it.

  6. 6

    For roughly how long was each image flashed onto the screen, and why did this matter?

    Model answer

    Each image appeared for about one tenth of a second, which is too brief for the participant to move their eyes and let the other hemisphere see it.

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Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication

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APunishment requires deprivation, loss of autonomy and stigma.
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CThe regime that achieves one tends to undermine the other.

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Core Studies: Biological Area revision questions

What does Core Studies: Biological Area cover in OCR A-Level Psychology?
13 subtopics: sperry (1968) split-brain study: background, apparatus and procedure, sperry (1968) split-brain study: results, conclusions and evaluation, casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: background and sample, casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: the go/no-go task and results, casey et al. (2011) neural correlates of delay of gratification: conclusions and evaluation, regions of the brain: comparing sperry and casey et al., blakemore and cooper (1970) early visual experience: background and method, blakemore and cooper (1970) early visual experience: procedure and results, blakemore and cooper (1970) early visual experience: conclusions and evaluation, maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: background, method and sample, maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: mri analysis and results, maguire et al. (2000) taxi drivers: conclusions and evaluation and brain plasticity: comparing blakemore and cooper and maguire et al.. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Core Studies: Biological Area organised?
By the OCR H567 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Core Studies: Biological Area, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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