Psychological Explanations: Cognition

Question 1

What biological evidence have we already covered that would suggest cognition is impaired in schizophrenia

Answer 1

• reduced processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms
• reduced processing of information in the temporal and cingulate gyri are associated with hallucinations
• lower than usual levels of information processing suggests that cognition is likely to be impaired

Question 2

how does Frith (1979) suggest that attention plays a role in cognitive deficits in SZ

Answer 2

• “attention deficit theory” = SZ is due to a faulty attention system unable to filter preconscious thought and gives too much significance to the information that would usually be filtered, overloading the mind
• accounts for +ve symptoms

Question 3

frith identified 2 kinds of dysfunctional thought processing that could underlie some symptoms. What are they

Answer 3

• metarepresentation
• central control

Question 4

metarepresentation = …

Answer 4

• the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour
• disrupts our ability to recognise our thoughts as our own

Question 5

metarepresentation: egocentricity bias = ….

Answer 5

the patient wrongly believes that they are central to any event or situation

Question 6

central control = …

Answer 6

• cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses
• been identified as a way to explain speech poverty
• people with SZ experience derailment of thoughts and spoken sentences because each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress

Question 7

What evidence did Frith provide to support his theory

Answer 7

• cognitive neuroscience studies
• 30 SZ patients with various symptoms had PET scans
• indicated a reduction in blood flow in the frontal cortex with patients with negative symptoms
• showed an increase in activity in the area temporal lobe responsible for the retrieval for the of memories with patients with the reality distortion
• suggests biological differences in SZ brain regions associated with the theorised cognitive processes

Question 8

What evidence did Stirling et al (2006) provide of dysfunctional central control

Answer 8

• Stroop test conducted on 30 patients with SZ and 18 control patients
• involved naming the ink colours on words without saying the word
• found that patients with SZ took 2x as long to name the colour as the controls
• suggests SZ patients have dysfunctional thought processing in case with faulty central control

Question 9

What does Frith suggest the role of meta-representation does and relate to symptoms

Answer 9

• dysfunction disrupts our ability to recognise out thoughts as our own - could lead to hearing voices
• patient wrongly believes that they are central to any event or situation

Question 10

What is central control and how does Frith suggest a dysfunction relates to symptoms

Answer 10

• people with SZ experience derailment of thoughts and spoken sentences because each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress
• been identified as a way to explain speech poverty

Question 11

How do ‘Jumping to Conclusions Bias’ and ‘Reality Monitoring’ tasks relate to symptoms, according to Sarin & Wallin (2014)

Answer 11

• research relating to the role of cognitive biases and found supporting evidence for the claim that the positive symptoms of SZ have their origin in faulty cognition
• Delusional patients were found to show various biases in their informational processing, such as jumping to conclusions and lack of reality testing
• patients with hallucinations were found to have impaired self-monitoring and tended to experience their own thoughts as voices

Question 12

what can be said about cause and effect of the relationship between cognitive deficits and SZ symtoms

Answer 12

• cognitive approaches DO NOT explain the causes
• links between symptoms and faulty cognitions are however clear

Question 13

what does CBTp stand for

Answer 13

cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis

Question 14

how does efficacy of CBT support the cognitive approach to SZ

Answer 14

• reinforced by the success of CBTp as a treatment for SZ
• NICE review 2014 found CBTp to be a more effective treatment than antipsychotics in reducing symptom severity and social functioning

Question 15

explain Howes & Murray’s 2014 Intergrative Model

Answer 15

• early vulnerability factors
• biased cognitive processing of this increased dopamine activity results in paranoia, hallucinations and eventually a development of psychosis
• increased the stress of the individual leading to more dopamine release and the cycle continues