W1 - studying the brain, behaviour and the mind

Question 1

How can we study the brain, behaviour and the mind?

Answer 1

• ask questions
• obderve what someone does
• measure performance on a task
• study th impact of brain damage on performance
• measure activity of healthy brains

Question 2

What is observation good for?

Answer 2

it allows us to see what is happening inside someones head by studying what they do in a natural enviorment

Question 3

what is a good way to study performance on a task?

Answer 3

measuring reaction times

Question 4

what is a Stroop Test?

Answer 4

a way of measuring the delay in reaction time between congruent and incongruent stimuli.

Question 5

Stroop Test and Theory on attention:
Automaticity Theory

Answer 5

The word interferes with color naming when they don’t match because reading happens automatically, but recognizing colors takes more effort.

Question 6

Stroop Test and Theory on attention:
Selective Attention process:

Answer 6

reading requires less attention compared to identifying a colour, that’s why it taks us longer to identify the colour of words in incongruent trials.

Question 7

Clive Wearing: Memory

Answer 7

• Contracted a virus (herpesviral encephalitis) caused damaged to parts of his brain
  involved in memory - hippocampus
• Unable to store new memories
• Lost most of him memories from before he became ill
• Retained his knowledge of music.

Question 8

Aphasia: Language

Answer 8

• Language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate.
• The result of a stroke or brain injury.
• People with aphasia may find the following tasks difficult:
• Talking
• Comprehending spoken, or written language
• Writing
• Using numbers, for example calculating answers to problems.

Question 9

Aphasia: Broca’s area

Answer 9

• Involved in speech production.
• Difficulty in producing language
• Comprehension abilities relatively conserved

Question 10

Aphasia: Wernike’s area

Answer 10

• Involved in language comprehension
• May speak fluently
• Spoken language often lacks meaning
• Difficulty with language comprehension

Question 11

what is a fMRI

Answer 11

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

• Safe and non-invasive
• Detects changes in the flow of blood
• Increases in blood flow are correlated with neuronal activation

Question 12

definition of MRI

Answer 12

magnetic resonance imaging

Question 13

what is a TMS

Answer 13

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

• Non-invasive technique that disrupt specific brain activity for a fraction of a second.
• Allows us to investigate the role of these areas in human functioning.