Introduction Flashcards
What was cognitive psychology born in?
Philosophy
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
The founder of psychology as a science who used introspection
What is metacognition?
- Awareness of your own thinking processes
- Planning
- Monitoring
- Evaluation
What does cognitive psychology investigate?
How we, as humans, perceive and represent what happens in the world around us
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The study of the biological basis of cognition and the brain mechanisms associated with cognition
What is phrenology?
Reading personality from bumps on the head - discredited but concept of localisation is supported
What did Broca and Wernicke show?
How lesions to other parts of the brain (left hemisphere) affect language capability
What are lesions?
Areas of the brain that are damaged by disease or injury
Traumatic brain injuries, stroke or tumours can result in lesions that affect behaviour
What are lobotomies?
Removal of frontal lobes. Patients were often left in vegetative states and responsible for an estimates 490 deaths
What can invase brain study methods do?
Microelectrodes can be implanted in the brain to record the electrical activity of individual neurons or groups of neurons
What can surface brain study methods do?
EEG places electrodes on the scalp to monitor electrical activity in the brain
What can internal brain study methods do?
PET studies inject small quantities of radioactive molecules into the body and monitors how they are distributed in the body
What can MRIs do?
Can map the blood flow and oxygenation to identify what parts of the brain are active during tasks
What can stimulation brain study methods do?
Stimulate or increase the activity in a brain region. TMS uses electromagnetic coils to activate neurons in a particular brain region
