2011 VN'ers Psychology U3 Questions Thread

[Russ]

But let's say that the p value for the results of some drug is insignificant...wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't be able to use that drug on the general population...hence you need to change the drug to produce results which are significant?

Well the only requirement for something to be sold as a medicine or health supplement is that it do not harm, so you could still manufacture and sell it but it probably wouldn't get prescribed a whole lot. If your p-value exceeds .05 then your drug doesn't beat placebo (at the 95% significance level) and you need to redo your experiment.

Or, as Glockmeister mentioned, come up with a way to dismiss it, something that pharmaceutical companies are extremely good at doing (Vioxx being the best example)

[iNerd]

Wow .05 for a drug is insane.

5% chance is too much.

I thought p<0.001 is used for drugs/medicine.

[Russ]

5% chance that the positive effect is not due to the drug is fine.

There are stricter measures for testing of side effects, but p<.05 is still used as the standard (if your study shows a significant treatment benefit but also throws up side effects, you're required to investigate them and demonstrate they're not significant or redesign your drug/vaccine)

Bear in mind that for a drug to get to the testing stage, it has to pass approval for use in humans - if the company has no idea why it could have a positive benefit, it won't be tested.

[Zafaraaaa]

It said in an exam solutions paper that "maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal both increase the duration of STM".. I understand how maintenance rehearsal does this, but how is it so for elaborative rehearsal? 
Thanks

[Glockmeister]

Wow .05 for a drug is insane.

5% chance is too much.

I thought p<0.001 is used for drugs/medicine.

Yeah, there's been a lot of controversy in the literature about the exclusive usage of p-value (a lot of which relates to the misinterpretations of what the p-value actually means by even seasoned researchers). I think in the medical literature, nowadays you tend to find other statistical numbers get used, like the Confidence Interval, as either a supplement or a substitute. If you're interested in reading further (this is definitely way beyond VCE - there'd be people in my cohort who aren't aware of this), then have a read of Cohen (1994) or Sterne and Smith (2000)

It does this by linking the new information with information already in Long-Term Memory, leading to the new information entering that LTM easier.
It said in an exam solutions paper that "maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal both increase the duration of STM".. I understand how maintenance rehearsal does this, but how is it so for elaborative rehearsal?  
Thanks

It does this be allowing links to form between new information and information already stored in Long Term Memory. This allows the new information to enter LTM easier and increase the amount of time information is stored in STM.

[Zafaraaaa]

Q- Outline two advantages and two disadvantages of elaborative rehearsal.    [4 marks]

Thanks

[iNerd]

+ LTM retention
- Takes time/effort

Think of one more for each

[iNerd]

Does the radioactive glucose injected for PET scans emit gamma rays? I normally say 'radioactive signals'...

[Moe112]

I don't think they're gamma rays, what I've understood from physics gamma rays are harmful especially when ingested and the radioactive tracer is said to be harmless.

[Russ]

Deleted his account

[Zafaraaaa]

So there was a question like
 "Identify the 3 functions of the primary motor cortex"
 and one of the answers was "to receive information from the somatosensory cortex" ... Is this in order to move a body part in response to sensory stimuli? (like to move your hand if you touch something hot)? stupid question, i know, but it's bothering me =[

thanks

[vexx]

So there was a question like
 "Identify the 3 functions of the primary motor cortex"
 and one of the answers was "to receive information from the somatosensory cortex" ... Is this in order to move a body part in response to sensory stimuli? (like to move your hand if you touch something hot)? stupid question, i know, but it's bothering me =[

thanks

do you know the feeling when you sit on your leg for awhile and it goes numb? you can still move the leg but you can't feel it so it makes it difficult to control. simply put: you receive information from the somatosensory cortex in order to coordinate the movements actually done by the motor cortex properly/precisely.

and recall, when you touch something hot and you quickly move your hand away: that doesn't involve the brain!!

[REBORN]

Indeed. I believe the term is 'reflex arc'.

[Anon123]

Question from Chemology me and my friend are a little confused about:

Q.15, The area of the brain that specialises in the processing of implicit memories is the:
a. Thalamus
b. Amygdala
c. Hippocampus
d. Motor Cortex

we thought the answer was B, because the amygdala is involved in the formation of implicit memories. However the answer is a.Thalamus, is this because the key term here is 'process', because the Thalamus processes incoming sensory information?

Thanks in advance

[Glockmeister]

Err.. Amygdala is involved in the formation of emotional memories i.e. it adds the emotional 'colour' to memories, as it were. Don't think it's involved in implicit memories.