Can years of navigating a city physically change the size of a region of the adult human brain?
Contemporary study: Maguire et al. (2000), Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluation, and links to the biological area and Blakemore and Cooper.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the contemporary biological study, Maguire et al. (2000) on the hippocampi of London taxi drivers. Covers the aim, the MRI quasi-experiment with VBM and pixel counting, the posterior and anterior hippocampus findings, the correlation with experience, evaluation, and links to Blakemore and Cooper and the biological area.
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What this dot point is asking
Maguire et al. (2000) is the contemporary study in the biological area for the theme "brain plasticity", paired with Blakemore and Cooper. You must know its aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluate it, and explain what it adds to the biological area and how it compares with Blakemore and Cooper.
The answer
Aim and method
Results and conclusions
Evaluation
- Objective measure. MRI with VBM and pixel counting gives reliable, quantitative neural data.
- Controls and correlation. Matched controls reduce some confounds, and the correlation with years of experience strengthens the navigation-brain link.
- Cause and effect. As a quasi-experiment it cannot prove navigation caused the change; people with larger posterior hippocampi might be drawn to taxi driving.
- Sample. Small (16) and narrow (male London cabbies), limiting generalisability.
- Individual differences. Uncontrolled factors (age, driving style) may contribute.
Examples in context
Example 1. Why this study fits the biological area. The biological area explains behaviour through brain structure. Maguire shows that a behavioural skill (navigating London) is associated with a measurable change in a specific brain region, the posterior hippocampus, so experience and brain structure are directly linked. This is a modern, imaging-based biological-area finding about plasticity.
Example 2. The contrast with Blakemore and Cooper. Blakemore and Cooper showed early visual deprivation shapes the developing cat brain; Maguire shows enriching experience reshapes the adult human brain. Both demonstrate neuroplasticity, but one uses controlled animal deprivation and one uses correlational human imaging, so comparing them covers the development-versus-adult and animal-versus-human contrasts the exam rewards.
Try this
Q1. Identify the research method used by Maguire et al. [1 mark]
- Cue. A quasi-experiment using MRI scans (comparing taxi drivers with controls).
Q2. State the relationship between posterior hippocampus volume and years of experience. [2 marks]
- Cue. A positive correlation: the longer someone had been a taxi driver, the larger their posterior hippocampus.
Q3. Explain why Maguire et al. cannot conclude that navigation caused the brain change. [3 marks]
- Cue. It is a correlational quasi-experiment with no manipulated IV, so the direction of the effect is unclear; people with a larger posterior hippocampus might be drawn to taxi driving rather than the driving causing the growth.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 202010 marksDescribe the method and results of Maguire et al.'s (2000) study of London taxi drivers. [10 marks]Show worked answer →
A description item testing method and results (AO1).
Method: a quasi-experiment using MRI scans of 16 right-handed male London taxi drivers (who had passed "The Knowledge", an extensive navigation test, and had at least 1.5 years' experience) compared with scans of 50 healthy right-handed males who did not drive taxis. Two techniques analysed the scans: voxel-based morphometry (VBM), measuring grey-matter density, and pixel counting, measuring the area of the hippocampus in slices.
Results: taxi drivers had significantly more grey matter in the posterior (back) hippocampus and less in the anterior (front) hippocampus than controls. The volume of the posterior hippocampus correlated positively with the number of years spent as a taxi driver: the longer they had driven, the larger the posterior hippocampus. This suggested the brain had redistributed grey matter in response to navigational experience.
Markers reward the MRI quasi-experiment comparing taxi drivers and controls, the VBM and pixel-counting analysis, and the key results (more posterior and less anterior hippocampal grey matter, correlated with years of experience).
OCR 202212 marksDiscuss what Maguire et al.'s (2000) study tells us about neuroplasticity, including its strengths and weaknesses. [12 marks]Show worked answer →
Tests interpretation plus evaluation (AO1 and AO3).
What it tells us: the adult human brain remains plastic. Years of navigating London were associated with more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, a region involved in spatial memory, suggesting that experience can physically reshape the adult brain, not just the developing one.
Strengths: objective, scientific MRI measures (VBM and pixel counting) give reliable quantitative data; matched controls (right-handed males) reduce some confounds; and the correlation with years of experience strengthens the link between navigation and brain structure.
Weaknesses: it is a quasi-experiment, so cause and effect cannot be firmly established, people with larger posterior hippocampi might be drawn to taxi driving (the direction of the effect is unclear); the sample is small (16) and narrow (male London cabbies), limiting generalisability; and individual differences are uncontrolled.
A strong answer concludes that the study gives strong correlational evidence for adult neuroplasticity but cannot prove navigation caused the change. Markers reward the plasticity interpretation plus balanced evaluation, especially the cause-and-effect limitation.
Related dot points
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Sources & how we know this
- OCR Level 3 Advanced GCE in Psychology (H567) specification — OCR (2015)