COGNITIVE EXPLANATIONS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA Flashcards
What are cognitive explanations
focus on mental processes (e.g. thinking, language and attention) as underpinning schizophrenic behaviour
what is dysfucntional thought processing
info processing that doesnt represent reality accurately and produces undesirable consequences
What is metacognition
cognitive monitoring of ones own thought processes.
what is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
it is thought to be the result of abnormal info processing
lower than normal level of info processing suggests that cognition is impaired in schizophrenic people
what is central control
cognitive abilty to suppress automatic repsonses while performing deliberate actions
How is atypical brain activity linked to negative symptoms?
reduced processing in the ventral striatum linked to motivation and anticipation of reward
How is atypical brain activity linked to positive symptoms
reduces processing in the temporal gyrus, linked to speech processing and in the cingulate gyrus, linked to error detection - associated with hallucinations
What is the cognitive bias explanation of positive symptoms
systematic patterns of deviation from normal thinking where inferences are drawn illogically, leading to delusions
e.g delusions of persecuction is people routinely interpreting other behaviour towards them as out to get them
What is the information processing bias explanation of positive symptoms
information is changed in different ways to normal people, explaining hallucinations
e.g everyone has internal voices but schizophrenic people may interpret theirs as someone else’s voice
what is the cogntive explanation for negative symptoms
impaired cognitive strategies - coping mechanisms
schizophrenic people have to cope with high levels of mental stimulation - impaired coping mechanisms are responsible for the flat affect and speech poverty they show
lack of emotion - schizophrenics are experiencing high levels of emotions e.g confusion anger nad fear. to keep this under control they have to remove themselves from their external emotional world
speech poverty - trying to control all of their disorganised thoughts and make sense of them - they will not have the capacity to verbalise information.
what is metarepresentation
ability to reflect on thought and behaviour. provides an insight into an individuals intentions and goals and allows them to interpret the intentions of others. Individuals know what the own mental state is and what the wishes and intentions of others are.
what happens when there is dysfucntion in metarepresentation
people cannot recognise their own thoughts and actions as their own and instead see them as belonging to someone else
unable to identify their thought as their own - can feel like someone else is controlling their thoughts and actions - explaining hallucinations and delusions
How is central control assessed?
stroop test
- tests cognitive inhibition
participants are asked to name the colour of there ink that a word is written in and need to suppress the impulse to read the word to complete the task
How does the stroop test affect people schizophrenia?
their thoughts and sentences dereail because each word triggers associations and responses to them which cannot be suppressed.
(explains speech poverty and disorgansied speech.)
