P: Has high spatial resolution, meaning it is useful for detecting the exact position of brain activity as it can detect very small measurements of brain regions that are active

E: This is approximately 1-2mm, which is significantly greater than other techniques, such as EEG, which can only detect activity on the cortex of the brain.

E: This is a strength as it allows psychologists to discriminate between different brain regions with greater accuracy, helping to pinpoint specific brain regions that are active during a particular task

P: A strength is that it is a non-invasive method of studying the brain

E: As a result, researchers are able to relate activity in the brain to behaviour without actually manipulating the brain, such as they do in post-mortem examinations, where the brain is dissected and studied in microscopic detail.

E: This makes it an ethical way of studying the brain in comparison to invasive methods such as post-mortems

P: Poor temporal resolution

P: Has good temporal resolution, meaning it is useful in detecting when brain activity takes place

E: This is because EEG scanners take readings every millisecond, meaning it can record brain activity in real-time, as opposed to looking at a passive brain. This is better than other techniques, such as FMRI, which has a temporal resolution of 1-4 seconds.

E: This suggests that EEG can provide a high degree of accuracy when examining when brain activity starts, allowing psychologists to make accurate conclusions about the timing of neural activity, in comparison to FMRI

P: A strength is that it is a non-invasive method of studying the brain

E: This means that researchers are able to relate activity in the brain to behaviour without actually manipulating the brain

E: This makes it an ethical way of studying the brain

P: Poor spatial resolution

P: A strength is that it is a non-invasive method of studying the brain

E: This means that researchers are able to relate activity in the brain to behaviour without actually manipulating the brain

E: This makes it an ethical way of studying the brain

P: The researcher requires a large number of trials to obtain meaningful data

E: This can be time-consuming for the researcher and repetitive for the participant

E: Therefore, it can be considered impractical

P: Post-mortem examinations allow a person's brain to be examined at a very high level of detail

E: This is because the brain is divided into small sections and closely examined under a microscope

E: Therefore, this allows very small brain abnormalities to be identified, such as abnormal synapses

P: There is no information about when the patient developed brain abnormalities

E: This is because researchers are looking at the patient's brain after death

E: Therefore, making it impossible to establish a solid cause-and-effect relationship between the brain abnormality and abnormal behaviour displayed by the patient while they were alive using post-mortem examinations

P: It is difficult to control extraneous or confounding variables

E: For instance, a patient taking medication during their life could affect their brain. However, as the patient is no longer alive it makes it difficult to know whether the medication could have caused the brain abnormalities.

E: This makes it even harder to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the brain abnormality and the abnormal behaviour