1. What is the relevance of ‘cooperation' to the study of Biological Psychology?
"Cooperation" is a key theoretical issue in biology - students should recognise that it appears, at first glance, to contradict Darwin's "survival of the fittest" but there is over a century of research to try to resolve this contradiction. Students should cite examples of social organisation in biology. Also the word "cooperation" does not imply a conscious intent to help each other and may occur between organisms that cannot think or behave autonomously. Here, "cooperation" is defined as an outcome that - despite potential relative costs to the individual - is "good" in some appropriate sense to the members of the group, and whose achievement requires collective action. The student will do well to have a grasp of what it means that cooperation has potential costs - i.e.its impact on evolutionary fitness: In the biological world, you can see cooperative social behaviour at six different levels of organisation. Students should outline these and give examples, including a description of the transitions of evolution given in the lecture.
2. Describe the evidence that enables us to associate different brain regions with different aspects of memory. What cautions need to be sounded?
Research has suggested not only differences between different types of memory but also the roles of different brain regions within a given form of memory. The caution is in trying to identify a single structure with a single function. Classification of brain regions can be too gross; i.e. there can be functional subdivisions within a given structure. Imaging studies can give a biological rationale for the fact that self-related memories are particularly strong. Lesions can disrupt one kind of memory while leaving another intact, e.g. STM vs. LTM in amnesia. Students should provide evidence for all these points.