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Summary Blakemore Cooper (1970) - development of the brain depends on the visual environment
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A summary of classic key study - Blakemore Cooper (1970)
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Blakemore and Cooper (1970): Development of the Brain Dependsof the Visual Environment
Background
This study is about how the brains of kittens can change depending on their early
visual experiences.
Visual tracking – the ability to follow the path of a moving object e.g. a tennis ball
being hit from player to player.
Depth perception – the ability to judge the position of an object to establish how far
away it is, partly due to stereopsis.
Monocular vision – ‘one eye’, e.g. closing 1 eye.
Binocular vision – both eyes – reading a book with both eyes open.
Cat Vision
Cats are intelligent animals. They can learn, solve problems and adapt to their
environment in much the same way as humans. According to Tufts University, cats
and humans have similar brain structures.
As cat and human brains share similarities, they are used by some researchers to try
and find out about how the brain works and how it can change.
Hubel and Weisel (1962)
Found that in a normal cat, neurones in the visual cortex respond to light and
specific features of their visual world.
They found that one type of neurone is orientation specific – certain neurones
respond specifically to lines and edges seen by the cat. These neurones can be
stimulated by either eye – cat vision is binocular.
In 1970, they found that total visual deprivation in kittens caused neurones in the
kittens’ brains that should be associated with the deprived eyes to decline in
number. As the kittens could not see anything, their brain changed by reducing the
number of neurones needed for their vision. This effect was greatest when the
kittens were aged between 4-8 weeks.
Hirsch and Spinelli (1970)
Found that early visual experience can change the neuronal organisation in kittens.
They used special goggles that made one eye view vertical stripes, and the other
horizontal stripes.
From this, they found that neurones relating to each eye became exclusive to either
vertical or horizontal lines – these neurones could only be activated by that
particular eye. The kittens’ vision had become monocular and illustrates plasticity as
visual restriction changed their brains.
Aim
To investigate the development of the primary visual cortex (vision area of the brain)
in cats and to find out if some of its properties e.g. orientation selectivity, are innate
or are learned.
Research Method
This study was a lab experiment.
IV – whether the kittens were reared in a horizontal or vertical environment.
DV – the kitten’s visuomotor behaviour (how they moved in relation to what they
could see) once they were placed in an illuminated environment.
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