The applied SAQs (A-SAQs) in Paper 1, Section B are challenging. In this post, I’ve devised an example question and written my own answer. I also asked ChatGPT to write an answer as well. Can you tell whose is whose? Which one do you think would score better?
The Question:
Context: Human Development
Prior research has shown differences in the brains of people with a secure attachment style compared to people with an insecure attachment style. A group of researchers want to study this further. They’re interested to see what happens in the brain when a new mother is cuddling her baby. Their research question is: “Are there are differences in brain activity based on attachment styles during mother-baby bonding time?”
Explain how one brain imaging technique could be used to address this research question.
Questions to Consider
Answer One
One brain imaging technique that could be used to address this research question is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A quasi-experiment could be conducted to see if attachment styles correspond to brain activity.
An fMRI is a brain scanner that measures the activity in the brain when people perform certain tasks. It’s useful to study localisation of function and neuroplasticity. In this research proposal, it seems they’re interested in neuroplasticity – does attachment style change the brain’s response to mother-child bonding? The first step in their study would be to find their sample. This would be mothers with young babies. They would then have to measure their attachment style. They could do this using a standard questionnaire.
The next step would be to have the participants lay in the fMRI while they were bonding with their baby. This would allow the researchers to measure the brain activity using the fMRI. However, this would be really difficult because the fMRI means you have to lie perfectly still – any movement and the results would be ruined. So they would have to do the scan when the baby was asleep, probably. This would also be difficult because fMRIs are quite loud machines.
fMRIs show which specific part of the brain is active during specific tasks. If the above study was interested to see which part of the brain was involved in bonding, they wouldn’t need the secure vs insecure attachment – they would just have a mother-child condition and a mother-only condition and see which part of the brain was activated in the bonding condition. Because they’re comparing the attachment styles, if they were to find differences in might suggest that experiences that led to developing an insecure attachment style also caused neuroplastic changes in the brain.
This is how fMRI could be used to address this question.
Answer Two
One brain imaging technique that could be used to investigate this research question is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow and oxygen levels in the brain. When a particular brain region is more active, it requires more oxygen, and fMRI can detect these changes. This makes it a useful tool for identifying which brain areas are involved in emotional bonding and caregiving.
To conduct the study, researchers would first assess each mother’s attachment style using a validated measure, such as the Adult Attachment Interview or a standardized questionnaire. Based on the results, mothers would be grouped as having either a secure or insecure attachment style. During the fMRI scan, mothers could participate in a bonding-related task. Because movement must be minimized in an fMRI scanner, a realistic approach might involve mothers watching live or recorded videos of themselves cuddling their baby, hearing their baby’s cry, or viewing images of their baby’s face while recalling recent bonding moments.
Researchers would then compare patterns of brain activity between securely and insecurely attached mothers. They might focus on regions linked to emotion (such as the amygdala), reward and motivation systems, and areas associated with empathy and caregiving. If attachment style influences bonding responses, securely attached mothers may show stronger activation in reward and caregiving networks, while insecurely attached mothers may show greater activation in stress-related regions. By comparing these patterns, fMRI would allow researchers to determine whether attachment style is associated with measurable differences in brain activity during mother–baby bonding.
What mark would you give each answer?
A Note on the Question
I don’t think the question I wrote for this exam paper is fair. The question specifies “brain activity,” but if you only learned about MRIs in your course you would be at a huge disadvantage. This is the major challenge I face when trying to write fair answers for Section B – it seems nearly impossible to phrase the question in a way that is fair for all students, regardless of the specific topics they’ve studied.
Answers
Mr. Dixon wrote 1 and ChatGPT wrote 2. I (Mr Dixon) think that ChatGPT’s is a better answer and it would score higher in the exam. However, it would be very difficult to prepare all topics to that extent for the exam. If that were a real student, it would mean they would know about a range of networks (see last paragraph). The answer I wrote was designed to be a more realistic
Travis Dixon has been teaching for over 20 years and is an experienced IB Psychology, History and English teacher, author, workshop leader and examiner