LS5 - Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
Cognitive Neuroscience
The scientific study of brain structure on mental processes e.g. mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions.
Brain Imaging Techniques
Advances in brain imaging e.g. FMRI and PET scans, have allowed scientists to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes e.g. semantic and episodic memory but also mental disorders.
Maguire Aim
To investigate whether brain anatomy was predetermined or susceptible to plastic changes.
Maguire Procedure
32 healthy males, 16 license male London taxi drives and the rest never driven taxis.
Maguire Findings
Showed the right hippocampus on taxi driver’s larger than the control group, and correlated with the amount of tiem drivign. This part of the brain is responsible for storing visual representations of the environment and linked to navigation.
Maguire Conclusion
Shows the importance of MRI scans and localisation of function, which can have practical application.
Strengths
Scientific/Objective
Real Life Application
Less Determinist
Weaknesses
Machine Reductionist
Ecological Validity
Inferences Are Subjective
Scientific/Objective (+)
Highly controlled and rigorous methods used e.g. lab experiments and use of biological methods.
Real Life Application (+)
Most dominant approach in psychology e.g. it has contributed towards AI and the development of ‘thinking machines’ that could revolutionalise the future.
Less Determinist (+)
Cognitive neuroscience is founded on soft determinism, as it recognises both determinism and free wiill.
Machine Reductionism (-)
The computer analogy has been criticised because it ignores the influence of motivation and emotion e.g. research has found human memory may be affected by emotional factors e.g. anxiety on EWT.
Lacks Ecological Validity (-)
It’s too theoretical and abtract. Studies using this model in memory therefore lacked ecological validity e.g. Peterson and Peterson, used nonsense trigrams which aren’t relevant in the real world.
Inferences Are Subjective (-)
It doesn’t give a full picutre of what’s going on inside the brain. Psychologists and scientists still need to make inferences about cognitive processing which might be based on limited information available from research/experiments.
