22 - Assessment of Cognition

Question 1

Aspects of Cognition

Answer 1

Cognitive Products: conscious thoughts (I’m going to look stupid)

Cognitive Processes: how you transform environmental input and extract meaning (over-estimation of personal risk)

Cognitive Structure: guides info processing (danger schema)

Question 2

Approaches to Cognitive Assessment

Answer 2

Endorsement: checklist

Production: pt generates

Question 3

Assessing Cognition

Answer 3

Thoughts:

1. Self-report of cognition
2. Think-aloud approaches
3. Random thought sampling

Cog Science:

1. Performance-based measures
2. Cognitive Modeling: decomposes behavioral performance into subprocesses; but often use difference scores (so not reliable at the individual level)
3. Cognitive neuroscience (imaging)

Question 4

Reliability Paradox

Answer 4

-Low between group variance; good for distinguishing between disordered vs not groups

• BUT, individual differences are unreliable
  
  • They depend on correlation which requires invariance, which the measures don’t have

So the very thing that makes them good for groups is bad for the individual