Hormones and Pheromones on behaviour full studies

Hormones on behaviour: SAQ

Newcomer et al: to investigate whether high levels of cortisol would interfere with verbal declarative memory

cortisol- stress hormone

Method and results: Newcomer et al

Group 1-160mg tablet. Group 2- 40mg tablet. Group 3- Placebo tablets. Taken each day for four days of experiment. Ppnts asked to read and recall a prose paragraph, tested 3 times. each day was a different passage of the same difficulty, and were tested before and after taking the drug.

High levels of cortisol impaired performance on memory tasks, but returned to normal a few days after stopping taking the tablets. Procedural/practice effects effected all groups.

Evaluation: Newcomer et al

• Clear cause and effect relationship

• baseline test eliminated confounding variables of individual differences

• ethnically wrong: due to stress on ppnt

• not in lab at all times, so extraneous variables could have an effect also

Hormones on behaviour: ERQ

McGaugh and Cahill: To investigate the impact of adrenaline and emotional arousal on the creation of FBM

Beta blockers- reduce activity of adrenaline (Propranolol)

Propranolol- beta blocker that prevents amygdala activation

Method and results: McGaugh and Cahill

Two groups each saw 13 slides, accompanied by a different story. one: a boring story about a women visiting the hospital with her son, when they witnessed an emergency practice drill. Two: a boy was involved in a car accident and had both his legs reattached by doctors. 2 weeks later, they were brought back in and asked on specific details of the story.

This reflected that the more traumatic story was more easily remembered.

Follow up study: Those who heard the traumatic story were injected with propranolol.

This reflected that the group with beta blockers recalled no better than the dull group

Conc.- The amygdala plays a significant role in the creation of FBM

Evaluation: McGaugh and Cahill

• Placebo controlled reduces bias

• easy replicated, so results can be consolidated

• High internal validity, low ecological validity

Pheromones: SAQ

Wedekind: To test the potential pheromone of MHC.
Major histocompatibility complex- a set of genes responsible for our immune system

Vomeronasal organ- used to smell pheromones, humans do not have one

Method and results: Wedekind

Males were asked to wear a T-Shirt for two nights, and keep it in an open bag during the day. During this time, the men were not allowed to use scented soap or colognes, and were asked to refrain from smoking and drinking. Then, women were presented with 6 of these shirts, and one control that hadn’t been worn, and asked to smell them through a hole. Three shirts had MHC similar to the women, and 3 had ones that were different. The women had to rate them on intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness.

Women scored body odours as more pleasant when they had a different MHC to their own. However, when the women were on oral contraceptives, the results were the reverse.

Conc.- MHC could play a potential role in mate selection

Evaluation: Wedekind

• Study has been successfully replicated, increasing validity of the results

• Too reductionist of human behaviours

• Double-blind experiment reduces demand characteristics

Pheromones on behaviour: ERQ

Zhou: to see the effects of AND and EST on heterosexual and homosexual males and females

Androstadiene- human steroid present in male semen and sweat

Estratetraenol- female equivalent

Vomeronasal organ- used to smell pheromones, humans do not have one

Point-light walker test- a set of dots that move in a way that represents the properties of human emotions

Method and results: Zhou

4 groups of healthy, non-smokers (Hetero females, males, homo females, males) participated in a point-light walker test, in three different conditions,

1. EST and cloves.

2. AND and cloves

3. Just cloves

Then say what gender the stick figure looked like to them.

When hetero females and homo males smelled AND, they were more likely to predict the figure was male

When hetero males smelled EST, they were more likely to say the figure was female

Homo females had no changes.

Evaluation: Zhou

• Clear cause and effect relationship shown

• counterbalanced with control group to reduce practice effects and order effects.

• failed to replicate study, so results may not be accurate

• dose of AND and EST was higher than natural in humans, so results may not be naturally occurring