The role of animal research in understanding human behavior

For all three topics in the biological approach, and with reference to research studies, HL students should study the following.

• The value of animal models in psychology research
• Whether animal research can provide insight into human behaviour
• Ethical considerations in animal research

Each week HLs will learn about animal research as outlined above in relation  to the topic they are learning alongside the SLs, e.g.

https://www.apa.org/research/responsible/research-animals.pdf

• Brain Localization and animal research

• Neuroplasticity and animal research: Marian Diamond research with rats – http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652001000200006

https://arxiv.org/ftp/q-bio/papers/0602/0602017.pdf interesting study looking at how winning fights leads mice to become literally addicted to aggression

Chapter on aggression and neuroplasticity and also neurotransmitters: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0n-fy3rxqkcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA163&dq=aggression+neuroplasticity+animals&ots=pCFNtmGFVO&sig=Deld_0FglQRJwXiODdhqwgvyd0s#v=onepage&q=aggression%20neuroplasticity%20animals&f=false

• Techniques used to study the brain in relation to behaviour: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/avian-einsteins/201209/brain-scanning-enables-objective-look-animal-emotions-0 this is a fascinating study about PET scanning with crows when shown the face of a threatening adult (the one who caught them) and caring adult (the one who fed them and looked after them in captivity)

• Neurotransmitters and their effect on behaviour and animal research: Rogers and Kesner – the role of acetylcholine in memory:
  • Create a short video or series of still images for a storyboard to show the stages of this study 🙂
  • maze doc example of a maze 🙂