Command term "DISCUSS" - give a considered and balanced review, including a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses. Opinions and conclusions presented clearly supported by appropriate evidence.

INTRODUCTION

The use of scanning technologies has brought about many discoveries and developments in the field of psychology. The use of technology at the cognitive level of analysis enables psychologists to utilise these different methods to examine the human brain, and to study the active brain. Technology also allows us so see where specific processes take place (localisation of functions).

MAIN BODY

TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY

MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Uses magnetic field and radio waves

Produces a 3D image

Used to detect structural changes

Can discern between different types of tissues

fMRI - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Detects changes in blood oxygen concentration

Is a real-time feed of brain activity - patients are often presented with a stimulus

PET - positron emission topography

Radioactive tracer isotopes injected (non-toxic)

Monitors glucose metabolisation

Allows for levels of brain activity to be seen

DECISION-MAKING

Involves the pre-frontal cortex

STUDY: Montague - Pepsi / Coke Challence

AIM: to examine customer preferance

PROCEDURE - Patients were given fMRI scans - Were given blind taste test of Pepsi and Coka Cola - Were given taste tests again, except they were told which was which

FINDINGS - Blind taste test - reward centre of the brain became active, the brain showed that the majority favoured the taste of Pepsi - In the second test, the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus became active, and 3/4 of the participants preferred coke

CONCLUSION - Using fMRI, psychologists discovered that despite Pepsi being the one that tasted better, people made the conscious decision and preferred Coke when they knew which was which - Activation of the pre-frontal cortex in the second test shows that decision-making happens there - When schemas about each brand were retrieved from the LTM, the hippocampus became active - Senses were influenced by schema - It is a "cultural norm" that Coke is better than Pepsi - conformity

EVALUATION - Low ecological validity - being under the machine may have caused some pressure - Ethnocentrism - Western values - Ethics of neuromarketing - breach of privacy - Does not explain the details of thought processing, it only showed that it happens

The fMRI machine illustrated the relationship between reasoning / decision making and different areas of the brain.

MEMORY

Episodic and semantic memories are stored in the hippocampus

Procedural and emotional memories are stored in the amygdala

STUDY: Clive Wearing Brain Scan

AIM: To look at Clive Wearing’s brain and whether his retrograde and anterograde amnesia can be seen using scans

FINDINGS - Scans showed damage to Wearing’s hippocampus and frontal regions

EVALUATION - Would have had to be conducted under sedation, otherwise the confusion would have caused him significant psychological trauma - Low ethical validity

STRENGTHS OF TECHNOLOGY

Sometimes it is the only way that data can be retrieved

High ecological validity

Data is easily measured (quantitative)

Significant help to researchers

Can help identify symptoms and diseases

WEAKNESSES OF TECHNOLOGY

Requires interpretation - qualitative data can be ambiguous

Closed / confined spaces of scanner - problems for claustrophobes and obese people

Fear could affect results (loudness may scare children)

Not suitable if pregnant / if you have metallic implants

Could be seen as invasive (PET scans - injection)