blakemore and cooper

Background and aims

• Looking for psychological and behavioural affects of restricted early visual experience on development of visual cortex cells

• Consider if brain development occurs due to nature or nurture

Design

• Lab experiment

• Independent measures

• IV= horizontal or vertical environment

• DV= behavioural and neurophysiological differences

Sample

2 cats

Newborn kittens

Materials

• cylinder with glass platform

• Cylinder constructed with contrasting black and white stripes

• No corners

• Varying widths

• Wore a collar so couldn’t see its body

Procedure

• kittens in a dark room for 2 weeks

• Then placed in the cylinder for an average of 5 hours a day

• At 5 months visual deprivation stopped.

• Several hours each week the cats were taken to well lit rooms with tables and chairs

• Given artificial lenses to make sure visual difficulties weren’t due to astigmatism- prevented extraneous variables

Results

• Pupillary response were normal

• Visual placing reflex shown after 10 hours

• Permanent - cats reached out to touch things far away

• Black rod was only played with when it was in the direction they saw the lines

Conclusions

Nature ( brain ) is modified by nurture ( experience ) to fit the demands of the environment.