A2 Psychology

Unit 3 Biological rhythms and sleep.

By the end of the lesson you should be

able to:
Name

and define the following

rhythms, ultradian, circadian and
infradian.
Outline and evaluate two pieces
of research investigating
circadian rhyhms.
Form an opinion on the

Specification at a glance
Circadian, infradian, and ultradian rhythms,
including the role of endogenous
pacemakers and of exogenous zeitgebers in
the control of circadian rhythms.
You therefore need to know:

Students must know a minimum of two research

studies for each biological rhythms in its outline
and evaluate.

Three rhythms

Ultradian

less than a day.

Circadian about a day.
Infradian more than a day.

Lesson focus Circadian Rhythms

Sleep wake cycle how many hours a day do
you sleep? Share with your group.

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UbQ0RxQu2
gM

Research evidence
Famous French explorer, Michel Siffre spent extended time deep inside
caves. He spent three extended periods in 1962, 1972 and 2000. The
longest was in 1972 in Midnight Cave which lasted 205 days. Siffre was
able to illuminate his living quarters when he wanted but he did not
have access to a clock so did not know the time or date of the outside
world. At first researchers found that his sleep pattern was erratic but
soon settled into a regular free-running rhythm, whilst his day shifted to
25 hours in length.

What do these findings suggest, that we can keep our rhythms going
with or without external factors, i.e. light.

Research evidence: Aschoff et al.

Participants spent up to a month living in specially designed
underground laboratories. The bunkers were built to shield the pps
from outside external factors that would allow their bodies to know what
time of day it was. Pps were able to sleep when they want and engage
in a number of activities. The pps appeared to keep a regular cycle of
daily activities, their cycles did begin to drift though. After two weeks
most pps were about half a day out compared with the outside world.
The bodies natural rhythm appears to be 25 hours so over time the pps
felt less time had passed than had (e.g. going to be one hour later every
night soon puts a person out of synch). The sleep-wake cycle becomes
free running being controlled by internal factors.

Plenary
Create

a bullet points/flow chart and or

diagram to demonstrate your current
knowledge and understanding of the
menstrual cycle.

Guided

learning time (GLT): 5 MINUTES

Homework
Lesson

1 homework to read the

following studies Ralph et al. (1990)
golden hamsters. And Campbell &
Murphy (1198) light on back of knees
and use the evaluation wheel to
evaluate. Bring to the next lesson to
use as part of the starter.