Brain plasticity: comparing Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire et al.

Overview

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.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Give the central similarity between the two studies.

   Model answer

   Both provide evidence that experience physically changes the structure or function of the brain.

2. 2

   What did the two studies have in common in how they measured the brain?

   Model answer

   Both measured the brain itself with objective technical methods rather than relying on self-report, producing quantitative data that others can check.

3. 3

   How were the samples of Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire et al. similar?

   Model answer

   Both were small and narrow, so neither on its own supports confident generalisation.

4. 4

   Give a similarity in the position the studies take on nature and nurture.

   Model answer

   Both show a biological structure being shaped by the environment, so both argue that nature and nurture interact rather than compete.

5. 5

   In what way are both studies reductionist?

   Model answer

   Both explain a complex ability, seeing in one case and navigating in the other, in terms of the properties of cells or tissue in a single region.

6. 6

   Give one similarity in the practical value of the two studies.

   Model answer

   Both support the idea that experience and training can reshape the brain, which is useful in rehabilitation and in the early treatment of visual problems.

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