Cognitive Explanation AO3

Question 1

What are the strengths of the cognitive explanation?

Answer 1

• Stirling et al’s study supports it
• Helmsley suggsted that schizophgrenics struggly to filter out stimuli, which relates to the idea of central control

Question 2

Explain Strirling et al’s study.

Answer 2

• 30 Schizophrenics took a Stoop test along with 18 controls
• the Schizophrenics took twice as long to do so, which therefore shows they process infromation differently due to central control

Question 3

What is the Stoop Test?

Answer 3

a coloured word test where you read out the colour the word (which is a colour) for example

Question 4

What is a weakness of the cognitive explanation?

Answer 4

• it only explains proximal causes of the symptoms but dows not address the root causes of the condition and it’s origin therefore may not be a valid explanation
• it is reductionsist as it only adresses cognitive impairment and neglects to explain neurochemical changes in their brain, for example the dopamine hypothesis